Something Wicked This Way Comes
by DrtyDiva
Summary: Nolan Grey is living the life. She has the job of her dreams and a dream date. Until she is attacked after stumbling out of a club in a drunken stupor. She is rescued by the weretiger Quinn who smells faery in Nolan's blood. Trying to trace her roots Nolan is thrust into the were world and in the middle of a fae war. What side will she stand on? Who can she trust? Will she live?
1. Bad Dog

I sat back in my chair ginning like a moron. I thumbed through the magazine looking for my article. IT was smack in the middle and I couldn't hide the little tremble that went through me when I saw my very first byline. Nolan Grey looked so good.

"You plan on working today?" asked a sarcastic voice. I smirked and looked up at Sage who was leaning against the door jamb of my little cubicle. For a girl that worked for a geek magazine the girl dressed like she was the editor of Vogue in her tight fitting Maxi dress and knee high boots. I always felt underdressed in my t-shirts and jeans around her.

"This is my first article I was just savoring the moment." Well it was my first article in a national publication. My high school newspaper couldn't compare to this. Sage sat down in the little chair wedged into what I liked to call the corner of my office. Which was just the corner of the partition between my cubicle and Peter's.

"Yeah that just an excuse to come talk to you." Her green eyes danced as she warmed up to the topic she really wanted to talk about. "I hear someone has a hot date tonight." I loved Sage I really did, but her boy craziness was sometimes annoying. Especially when it was directed at me.

But I sighed and smiled, "I finally got Josh to nail down a date. Its tonight and I plan on getting all dolled up and everything." I was really just going to go get my nails and feet done. My hair was still holding up pretty well so I didn't need to get that retouched, and I had a new dress swinging in my closet as we spoke.

Sage giggled, "As if you needed to do anything other than show up. Girl I don't know how someone as beautiful as you is still single." Sage said that at least once a week. Like she was a knock out. The girl could stop traffic and the fact that had been the subject of a lawsuit from a man who claimed her smiled caused him to wrap his car around a mailbox was still a sticking point for her.

"Well maybe Josh can change my losing streak in the dating department." I turned back to my monitor and checked my google calendar. The filming of the new season of A Game Of Thrones was coming up fast and I had some interviews lined up. I was excited as hell to be going and frankly there were a lot of autographs I wanted to get. "He's taking me to that new seafood place on the Riverfront." I guessed being the new hotshot D.A in town opened a few doors for you because I had been trying to get reservations to Delphi for months.

Her perfectly arched eyebrows rose up into her hair, "Well, well someone is working hard to impress you or he is expecting some tail when you get back to his place." I blushed right down to my Jordans.

"You know you are the only black girl that I know that blushes as much as you do." Sage giggled which in turn caused my blush to deepened. I hated that I blushed so much because she was right. I didn't even know too many black people that blushed like I did. I chalked it up to being the real nerd girl that I was. "But enough chitchat I'm on deadline with the the Darksiders II review." She stood up and cracked her knuckles. A move she did before she sat down to play video games for hours on end. She blew me a kiss and flounced out of my "office"

After Sage left the rest of the day dragged on. I was nervous about my date and I just couldn't concentrate on anything. Good thing my next article wasn't due for another week because for the life of me I couldn't keep a coherent thought in my head. I stopped by Sage's office to see if she wanted to go to the nail shop with me but with the shouts coming from the Game Room I gathered she was in the middle of her Jason beat down. I swear those two should just sleep with each other and get it over with. This little dance they did every time a new game came out was exhausting to watch, but it kept my milk money flowing. I had hundred down on Sage.

The dating gods must have been on my side because when I got to the nail shop it was empty and quiet. Did everyone know it had been nearly 3 years since my last date? Before I could go down the dark road I picked out a electric blue color for my nails and then I was taken right back for my pedicure. The massage was relaxing and I had to fight to keep myself from falling asleep and then the sharp sting of the nail dust from my manicure kept me awake.

All in all I was in and out in less than an hour and that was a miracle. I was home in time for a relaxing soak in my midget sized bathtub, but since I was 4 foot 8 inches tall on a good day I fit in it perfectly. It was a nice soak too as I got to use some of the fancy stuff I had gotten for Christmas last year. I cracked open a bottle of wine as I soaked and tried not to talk myself out of my date. Josh Grant was a successful D.A that had just won that large case against the Dick and Jane killer. His face was plastered everywhere and he had been on a media tour of every political talk show from coast to coast. He had called me from the set of Anderson 360 yesterday. I was't sure how I was going to measure up in his world. I had just gotten my first real job since graduating college and that had been a few years ago. And the only reason I had a place to live was because my grandfather had owned the apartment building and he was letting me stay rent free. "Ah hell," I groaned I was one more negative thought away from canceling my date.

I got out of the tub and swaddled myself up tight. I fired up my iPod and got some Beyonce blaring through my apartment. I needed this date not to mention I wanted Josh's lips on my neck. Getting dressed helped to lift my spirits and by the time 7:30 rolled around I felt like I could run the world. I was wearing a one shouldered yellow dress that fell down to the floor. The fabric pooled my feet but when I stepped into my highest heels the dress was able to swing around ankles. It was the most I had ever spent on a dress and I felt like a princess in it. The color played off my skin nicely. I looked like a wrapped up hershey bar. And I was hoping Josh was up to making me melt in his mouth and not in his hand. Good grief for a virgin I was being vulgar as hell.

On the drive downtown I had to rein in my imagination. This was a date not the start of a porno, but I guess my body was telling me it was time to lose my V-status as Sage liked to call it. Since summer was dying down people were crawling out of their air conditioned fortresses so traffic was heavier than I thought. I pulled up to the restaurant with minutes to spare. Delphi was a sparkling jewel that looked was sandwiched between two casinos. The entire front of the restaurant was one solid piece of glass that went up nearly three stories. It overlooked the river and the lights from the casinos bathed the patrons in a kaleidoscope of colors.

A valet opened my door and helped pull me out of my Mini Cooper. He handed me a ticket and jumped behind my wheel. I was feeling like a movie star when the door was pulled open for me and I was ushered into the vestibule. It was the fanciest restaurant I had ever been too. Growing up in a small town in the middle of east Texas Shreveport was the largest city I had ever lived in.

"May I help you?" The woman looked me over as if I were street trash that had wandered in though her voice was as professional as ever. Well damn it wasn't as if I were the only black person in the place. I threw back my shoulders and walked over to her with as much dignity as I could muster in six inch heels.

"Reservation for Grant please," I told her. Her eyes widen as she took me in up close.

"Yes Ms. Grey Mr. Grant called a few moments ago. He regrets but he has to cancel he is stuck in New York, but he asked that you stay and enjoy yourself." she handed me the phone message that he had left. Which said everything she had told me and my heart sank. Did I want to sit in this fancy restaurant surrounded by couples having a great time or did I want to run by the corner store grab as much vodka as I could carry and drink my pain away?

I shook my head. I just wasn't up to the pity looks I would get if I sat alone in my beautiful dress, "No thank you." I gave her a small smile and turned around to collect my car. I hopped in before the tears could start flowing and I made a total fool of myself.

I left the glitz and glamor of the riverfront and headed to a seedier part of the city. If I wanted to drink my body weight in vodka in a party dress and not have anyone ask me any questions it was best to do it in a part of town that didn't like questions.

When steel mesh fences started replacing wrought iron I knew I was in the right place. I parked my car and got out. Rap and salsa music competed for the limited air space and I was sorely tempted to head toward the salsa music but a scuff in front of a bar with a roaster painted on the window stopped me from heading in that direction.

I wanted to walk on the wild side sure, but I wanted to still be standing in at the end of the night. I headed toward the rap music. It was coming from a single story grey cinder block building with purple strobing lights over the entrance. Of all the women in the line I was clearly overdressed. Most of the girls were wearing t-shirts masquerading as dresses and enough make up to give Covergirl a hard on. The bouncer stared at my driver's license and my face for a full five minutes before deciding that I was indeed 18. Like I would get a fake ID that said I was 26 when I was barely 5 feet tall, but he let me in. It was a light crowd and I chalked that up to it only being 8:30 and they were most girls. Free before 11 must still be SOP for clubs. I hadn't been to a club in years so it was news to me. I grabbed a seat at the bar and ordered a screw driver.

By the time the club was in full swing my head felt like was floating in one of the jars in the biology lab. I had moved to a booth that ringed the dance floor because I didn't trust my balance on a bar stool after that first drink. My bar tab was already higher than my car payment when last call rolled around.

I kicked off my heels and stumbled out of the club holding my dress in one hand and my shoes in the other. I blinked up at the glare of the streetlight as I tried to find my car. I turned down an alley I thought for sure had to be where I parked my car. "Hey baby," I whirled around to find three blurry figures blocking the mouth of the alley.

My sobriety shot up my spine and I realized they were standing in the only entrance to the alley. "Excuse me," I said making a move to slip between them.

A big hand swung down and blocked me. "Don't you want to stay and play with us. You smell good enough to eat." I recoiled back. All of them were as big as boulders with thick ropes of muscles that encased their bodies like cellophane.

"I was just heading home," I whimpered trying to keep myself from panicking.

The advanced on me and I flew into full panic mode. I tried to feint and dash past them but they tracked my movements like sniper scopes. The one in the right snagged me off the pavement and slammed my body against the side of building. All the wind rushed out of my body as stars did the electric slide in front of my eyes. "That wasn't very nice. Was it Dean?" The man holding me asked. He leaned in and inhaling before running his tongue alone my collar bone. I struggled in his grips as his buddies laughed and egged him on.

"We might need to teach her some manners." One of them said.

"I can teach her a lot more than that." his big hands started pushing up the hem of my dress as I tried to kick him. He slammed me against the wall again. I felt the back of my head crack. The tight grip of oblivion was dragging me into its warm embrace as I tried to squirm away from him. His hand snaked up my thigh. He ripped my panties off.

"Oh god please," I begged as the tears streamed down my face.

"Don't start begging yet. I haven't done anything." He growled as he pressed his lips on mine. He tasted like a revolting hybrid of tobacco and dog. The bile rose up in my throat as he started fumbling with the front of his jeans.

Before he could get his jeans undone a mighty roar rose up from the mouth of the alley and we all turned to the source of the noise. Even in my drunken scared shitless stupor I had to blink to make sure I was seeing what I was really seeing. A massive tiger was eating up the pavement and headed right towards our little happy rape scene.

The guy holding me dropped me to the pavement and I crumpled like a pile of laundry. The other two guys were vibrating in the middle of little dust clouds. Snarling muzzles replaced their face and soon a honest to god wolf jumped free of their clothes before attacking the charging tiger. I screamed like the girl I was and scrambled back from the melee.

A sonic boom detonated in the alley with the tiger finally met the wolves in a head on collision. I wanted to tear out of the place like my panties were on fire but they were fighting near the entrance and self preservation told me if I wanted to live to stay put. I had seen when animals attack on the Discovery Channel loads of times, but that did not compare to the real deal. The sheer volume of the growls and snarls was driving a spike into my frontal lobe. I could have suntanned myself on the heat that the rolling off all the animals. Well shit they were people who changed into wolves fighting a wild tiger that just happened to be wandering the streets. I shook my head and tried to stand. The tiger turned its purple eyes on me and growled. I took the hint and sat back down.

He returned back to the fight just as one of the wolves snapped at his leg. He bit down on the wolf's back and the thing howled and listed to the side. The remaining wolves darted in to attack at the tiger one on one, but they were paying for it. The tiger's massive paws swiped at them and soon all of them were missing chunks of fire and blood was dripping down from a variety of wounds. I guess the tiger was getting bored with the whole fight as he snarled and pounced on one of the wolves. He flattened the poor animal to a chorus of breaking bones and howls of pain. The other wolf took the hint and hightailed it out of the alley and into the night.

The silence was deafening.

Neither wolf was moving and the tiger was vibrating in a dust cloud. While it was distracted I pulled myself up on shaky legs. I inched around the bloody heap that was left of the wolves and made a run for the mouth of the alley.

"I'm not going to hurt you," a weak voice called behind me. I whirled around and a large naked man was kneeling on the concert covered in scratches and blood. Right where the tiger had been.

"Oh shit," He was the tiger. I had heard the stories, but I thought it was just that stories. I mean sure vampires were real, but people who turned into animals. That just boggled the mind. The man pushed himself up off the ground. I swallowed as I got a good look at his entire body. He was big from head to toe. Bigger than the men that attacked me and totally bald. His purple eyes were fuzzy with the after effects of the fight he had just been in. When he swayed I threw caution out of the window and rushed over to him. "You're hurt." It was stupidly understated but it was all I had.

"This is nothing," The man winched as he put pressure on the leg that one of the wolves tried to bit. "Are you alright. I tried to get here when I saw them tracking you but I had to get around a squad of cop cars in front of that club." I looked up at him. He had fought those men trying to protect me.

"Why the hell would you do that?" I blurted out.

"I hate men who prey on women especially rapist." He grunted as we hobbled out of the alley. I was acutely aware that I was holding onto a totally naked man and we were in the middle of a seedy part of the city. I pulled him to a stop and he nearly fell over. I tore off the bottom half of my dress and handed it to him to cover himself up. He smirked at me before wrapping the fabric around his waist like a towel. "Thanks. Look its not safe for you right now, plus you're bleeding." He grabbed my hand and pulled me across the street to a massive redneck truck.

I tried to yank back. Just because he had played Superman didn't mean he didn't want to kill me himself. "Let me go," I was sucking in air to let out a nice high pitched scream.

"I'm not going to hurt you. Look the name's Quinn. That were that got away is probably headed to your house right now to finish what he started. So I just want to make sure you're ok." He let go of my hand and I nearly toppled over onto my butt, but he caught my elbow before I did.

"How the hell does he know where I live?" I demanded.

"Believe it or not but you smell amazing." Her purple eyes sharped as he sniffed above my head.

"Its just perfume. He can't possible me find my house based on a perfume. Hell its not even mine its my friend Sage's." and good luck finding Sage at her own house at this time of night.

Quinn shook his head as he popped the door open to his truck. "Its not the perfume he is smelling. Its something about you. In your blood. I've only smelled it one other time on another human." As if he said something earth shattering he grabbed me. "Come on." He moved too fast for me to run away and he was too strong for me to fight him. He picked me up like a child and pushed me into his truck. He jumped in and the engine roared as it turned over and we shot away from the curb so fast my head was nearly put through his window.

I didn't have my cellphone with my so I couldn't call for help and since I liked my face where it was I wasn't going to try and jump out of the moving truck. "Look I'm not going to hurt you ok. I didn't jump into a fight with three grown Weres just so I could kill you myself." I had no idea where we were going so I didn't bother trying to follow the twists and turns he was making. "What's your name?" He asked pulling a shirt over his head with one hand and then the other to keep the truck on the road.

"Nolan," I growled as I crossed my arms over my chest and just sat back for the duration of the ride. Quinn managed to wiggle his ass into a pair of jeans without wrecking the truck and I had to hand it to him. It took girls at least four slutty years in high school to prefect the art of dressing in a moving a car. "Where are we going?" If he wasn't going to kill me he shouldn't have a problem telling me that.

"The local packmaster." He answered as if that just told me the entire story.

"What's a packmaster?" The only thing I knew about wolves was from Red Riding Hood and since that was a horrible movie I figured I was a dunce on this subject.

"Wolves operate in packs and the packmaster is the guy in charge." We pulled into a parking lot surrounded by a high fence. There were a few cars in the lot though it was well passed last call at this point. He parked his truck and killed the engine. "No one is going to hurt you alright." For someone I believed him so I nodded.

He grunted again and climbed out of his truck. I followed him. I almost needed a grappling hook to reach the ground but I managed. Quinn waited for me which I thought was sweet and indicator that he wasn't going to finish raping me and then turn into that tiger to devour my body. He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the parking.

"Ok um yeah not wearing any shoes big guy," I grumbled. There went my pedicure.

"Oh shit I'm sorry." He stopped and swung me up into his arms like a child. I wanted to protest, "Just relax Nolan." he chuckled. He walked across the street to another nondescript grey cinderblock building. A red glowing dog was plastered across a blacked out window. A big beefy guy in need of a drive-by root canal was guarding a steel slab of a door.

"Quinn," He grunted. "Bringing us a snack tonight?" the man asked as he had the gaul to smirk at me. I could smell his rotting breath for 20 feet. I shrank back into the comfort of Quinn's arms as he growled at the man.

"I need to speak to Alcide. Three weres were trying to rape her. Two of them are down over on Trade Street." His purple eyes pegged the trash heap with a blazing stare and the man threw open the door.

Once inside he set me down gently as grabbed my hand. We moved through a little coat check area into the belly of the bar. It was a standard set up with a long wood topped bar running along the back wall and round tables scattered here and there. A group of people were milling around the bar and Quinn pulled me along.

I was aware of a dull throbbing in the back of my head and I was praying there was a warm bed at the end of this rainbow ride.

"Packmaster," Quinn said as a way of a greeting. I was standing behind him and in the shadows so I had to peek around his arm to see who he was talking to. The man he addressed threw back whatever he was drinking before turning. The man was a ruddy sort of tanned. As if he spent all his waking hours outdoors. He was well over six feet tall and I felt like a acorn at the bottom of one of those huge oak trees in California. Like Quinn and those men who attacked me his body was wrapped in muscles and his dark hair fell in waves across his face. I was struck stupid at how gorgeous he was. He lifted his nose into the air and inhaled. His body swayed and I started blushing. Once he had his feel of my smell his green eyes found my face and I knew my body was in full blush mode. He held my faze for a few moments before he turned his attention to Quinn.

"John Quinn," He dipped his head. "To what do we owe the pleasure." The man murmured. His voice was like warm butter sliding across toast. It started a fire somewhere in the pit of my belly and I was sure if I had been wearing panties they would have gone up in smoke as well.

"Your wolves are getting out of control. I stopped 3 of them from raping Nolan tonight." I squeaked when he said my name. Every eye in the bar turned to look at me then.

I stepped out from the protection of Quinn's shadow and waved like the idiot I was. Every nose in the car was in the air at this point. Geez did I really smell that bad? "What is she?" one of the female patrons asked with a glazed expression on her face as she kept breathing deeply.

"Who is she?" The raven hair Adonis asked.

"Nolan Grey." I answered.

"So she's human so why would any of my wolves attack her?" He was talking to Quinn like I wasn't in the room.

"You think I normally walk around town in half of a dress with no shoes on and torn panties?" I asked. I tired not to blush at the torn panties party and I think God my body for once obliged me.

"Damnit Alcide you know damned well she isn't all human. You can smell it I know." Quinn growled. My head snapped up at his face.

"What the hell does that mean? Not all human. What the hell?" Quinn wouldn't look at me and I pumped him in the arm, and got some bruised knuckles for it.

"Shit," Alicide cursed. "I'm not calling her Quinn." He turned around and downed another drink.

"This should be good," one of the younger looking men in the room said as he bounced happily in his chair. "Sookie makes life worth living."

"What the fuck is going on?" I wanted to stamp my foot but I remembered just in time that I didn't have any shoes on. Who the hell was this Sookie and what did she have to do with me?


	2. Sleepover With A Were

Everyone looked at me like I was the crazy one asking what was going on. And rightly so they completely ignored me.

"I expect you to offer her your protection Alcide." Quinn said folding his arms across his chest like he was expecting a fight. I stepped back further into the shadows expecting the same thing.

"I don't have to do a damned thing tiger," Alcide growled as he slammed back another drink. I wondered what he was trying to forget judging the fact that he was starting to sway I was sure he had been drinking since he left work.

"Bullshit. She was attacked by wolves in your city." Quinn spat. A few growls rolled up from the peanut gallery. I stepped back closer to Quinn. Just in case someone got froggy. Who knew fear could finally help me to learn the Texas two step.

"She can stay with me." I turned back to the boy who seemed excited that this was going to involved a Sookie, whatever the hell that was. He was a cute kid but something about his yellow eyes told me that staying with him would not be a good idea for my health.

"You call Sookie and she can stay with me. That's all your getting tonight Quinn." Alcide growled.

"Bet." Quinn whipped out his phone and faded into the background to make his phone call. I was still in the dark and it looked like no one was going to tell me what was going on.

"Does this mean we get to keep her?" The boy asked as he came around me. I yelped and jumped away from him.

"Leave her be Evan." the woman bartender snapped. Evan gave me one last sniff before returning to his chair. "Stacy bring her some shoes and pants." I looked down. I hadn't realized how short my dress had gotten when I tore it off to cover Quinn's naked ass cheeks. If I bent over I would expose the world to my burning bush. Whoever Stacy was she returned with a pair of running shoes and some jeans that looked like a little girl had rolled around in the mud before pulling them off.

My nose crinkled as I took the clothes, but I didn't want to offend anyone. Quinn returned a few minutes later. "Sookie says she can be here tomorrow night." Alcide nodded at this proclamation. He turned and looked down at me. "I've got some work to finish up but Alcide here is going to take care of you and he will be a damned gentlemen about it." Quinn shot Alcide a look that told him he had better be nothing but a gentlemen with me, but for someone reason I panicked at the thought of Quinn leaving me. I gripped his bicep as hard as I could. Which probably felt like a baby's sneeze to him. "Don't be scared no one will hurt you alright." He bent down and kissed me on the forehead. "I will see you back here tomorrow night." He gave Alcide another look and then tromped out of the bar. Everyone tracked his movements. Once he was gone everyone went back to whatever it was they were doing before we arrived.

After that little showdown no one paid me any attention. I was on my own as to where the bathroom was, but since this was just a bar I figured they were over near the glowing exit sign. I was rewarded with a relatively clean bathroom with two stalls. I was not about to pull those filthy jeans on so I just slipped off the shoulder of my dress and wiggled it down till it fell down to the middle of my thighs. More of my breasts were exposed but that was better than my bare ass. Or if I were honest an outline of a bare ass. For a black girl I was sorely lacking in the butt department.

I was looking at myself in the mirror when it finally hit home. Oh my god I had almost been raped. That man had torn off my panties and had been a moment away from raping me. When the thought registered in my brain I ran into the stall and threw up. "Holy crap," then the waterworks started.

Then I started to hyperventilate. "Oh my god," I tried to duck my hand down to my knees, but the circuitry behind my eyes start missing firing.

I sank down to the floor. Then the lights went out.

Something was dripping on my face. I groaned and opened my eyes. Someone was cleaning my face with a soft bath cloth. I wasn't sure how long I had been out but I wasn't in the club anymore. I was lying on a couch in nothing but my bra and a bed sheet. I moved to sit up and and big hand pushed me back down. "Easy. Unless you want to start throwing up again." It was Alcide.

"What happened?" I croaked. My voice sounded like rough gravel. Tasted like gravel too.

"Stacy found you in the bathroom passed out." He finished washing my face then got up off the couch. I was embarrassed that they had found me in the bathroom after my hissy fit and more embarrassed that he had seen me naked.

I slowly pulled myself up to a sitting position.

We were in an apartment judging from the relative size to my own place. The living room was comfortable with its sofa I was sitting on and two chair facing a flat screened TV. Alcide shambled back into the living room holding a glass filled with some sort of fizzing soda. "Its ginger ale." I gave him a weak smile and accepted the glass. The soda loosened my throat muscles and I wanted to sigh in appreciation.

He pulled a phone out of his back pocket and handed it to me. "Call whoever you need to." He nodded and then left me alone. He didn't look too steady on his feet as he left. I guess I was right about the drinking.

I dialed up Sage and hoped she wasn't in the middle of her sexual aerobics as she called it. She was a cranky bitch if I interrupted her. She picked up on the third ring. "Hello." she didn't recognize the number so I got her standard bill collector voice. A mix of pissed off and venom.

"Sage its me." I whispered. I didn't know why I was whispering.

"Nolan where are you calling from? Did you and Josh have sex on the first date." She was instantly awake now. I could hear the smirk in her voice.

I swallowed, "No he stood me up." As if that were the worst thing that happened to me.

"That asshole. I don't care who he is no one stands up my girl. Want to drive by his house and throw a brick through his windshield?" She stopped talking long enough to take a pull on what I was assuming was a bottle of water. I never saw Sage with a soda in her hand.

"No Sage listen. I went to Trade Street." I started

"Why the hell did you go down there? Why didn't you call me I would have come with you?" She snorted.

"I was attacked." I said trying to get a work in the conversation.

"Oh fuck Nolan are you ok? Where are you? I'm coming to get you." I was amazed at how fast she could switch from one stream of sentences to the next to flawlessly. I felt like a ping pong.

"I'm fine. I'm fine, but I'm staying with a friend. I think the guys that almost raped.." I slapped my hand over my mouth as soon as I said it.

"What the fuck!" She screeched. I had to pull the phone away from my ear and wince. "You said you were attacked not almost raped. I'm coming to get you. Where the hell are you?" she demanded.

"Sage I'm alright. I'm staying with a friend. I didn't want to go back to my place. I was scared they may have followed me home." I tried to be as calming as I could.

"What the hell Nolan." I knew she was working up to chew me out but I just didn't have the strength to listen.

"Sage I am ok. I will call you tomorrow. I promise." I hung up before she could say anything. I sagged into the couch. Sometimes talking to my best friend was just too much of a chore. Wrapping the sheet around myself I stood up and wobbled down the short hallway. I needed to find a bed fast or I was liable to pass out again and I had had enough of the zombie routine. A smart bathroom was behind door number1.

I shut that quickly before the urge to throw up ran up on me again.

I opened another door hoping it was a bedroom I could crash in. Luck was on my side. It was a neat little room with a queen bed calling my name nestled underneath a window. The comforter looked soft as a cloud. I waddled over and sank down into the bed. It was as soft as I imagined it would be. Either that or I was just dog tired and sandpaper would have had me singing its praises.

I curled on my side and laid down. I was facing a row of closets. The headlights of passing cars threw curious shadows across the doors. I could feel what little energy I had seeping out of my body and I tried to close my eyes, but I couldn't. That man's face was seared on my eyelids.

I rolled over on my back and tried to go to sleep. It wouldn't come. It was dodging me like I was the police with a warrant for its arrest. I groaned and flopped over on my stomach and still sleep evaded me. Though my body was ready to crash my brain kept replaying my attempted rape over and over again and my eyes did not want to close.

I sat up and climbed off the bed. I had no idea where I was going but I wasn't getting any sleep. I heard soft snoring coming from the closed door across the hall for me and I cursed myself for what I was about to do. I turned the doorknob as softly as I could and I poked my head into the room.

My breath hitched up and I swear my heart stopped beating. Alcide was lying sprawled across the bed, and he was stark naked. He looked like melting carmel against the stark white sheets. I finally understood the term onion booty because Alcide had the kind of butt that made me want to weep at the sheer perfection of it. "Stop staring at me." He growled. I yelped like a spanked dog.

"I'm sorry." I stammered totally mortified at being caught peeking at him. I wanted to dash back to my room and hide under the covers till the second coming, but I didn't move. God he was beautiful.

"Well fuck, either come in or get out." He lifted his head to turn and look at me. I closed the door with a snap. "You just going to stand there and look at me?" He asked. I stupidly nodded my head. He laughed darkly and rolled over onto his back. I caught a glimpse of his hard on before he threw the covers over himself. "Scared?" He asked me softly.

I nodded, "I couldn't sleep." I answered back. He patted the bed next to him and I took the hint.

On shaking legs I moved to the other side of the bed and sat down. I was very aware that he was naked and I was nearly naked and he was aroused and I was aware that he was aroused. I swung my legs up on the bed and laid back into the pillow like I was preparing for my own embalming.

Alcide turned over on his side with his back facing me. I sighed and did the same. It was barely five minutes before he was snoring again. I leaned up and repositioned my pillow again. I still couldn't sleep and I tried sleeping on my stomach again. Then I rolled back over onto my back. Alcide grunted and threw his arm across my stomach. I stiffened as he pulled me up against his body. He turned so that my back was pressed up against his chest. Judging from his snoring he was still asleep. He was probably thinking I was someone else. Which was not helping my self esteem issues right now.

He was holding me too tight for me to try and wiggle out of his grip. His body was blistering hot and it wasn't until I relaxed that I relaxed how tightly wound I was. I let go of the breath I was holding and finally my eyes closed.

It was a curious thing waking up. I felt like a microwaved burrito I was so warm and snuggled.

My eyes fluttered open. Light was leaking into the room through the closed blinds and looking at the clock on the nightstand I had only been asleep for an hour in a half. Oh this was starting out to be a great day. I moan escaped my lips before I could stop it. I was lying in the crook of Alcide's arm and he was holding on to my waist for dear life. He leaned down and nuzzled my neck gently. I stiffened in his embrace.

I was covered in sweat at this point so I was so not in the mood for this cuddle fest we had going on. "Um Alcide," I said trying to wiggle out of his grip. He growled deep in his chest and I stopped moving. I turned over till I was facing him. He was still asleep so he probably didn't remember who he was trying to cuddle with.

I tried poking him in the chest, he didn't wake. I shook his shoulder and still he didn't wake up and I really had to pee at this point. Finally I grabbed him by the ears and pulled him in for a kiss. When our lips touched lightening struck. Lights burst before my eyes and my whole body felt lit up and his eyes flew open and he jumped back from me like I was a nuclear payload.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I said scrambling out of the bed. "You wouldn't let go of me." I told him.

"So you thought kissing me was a good way to wake me up?" He asked like I was begging him to throw me on the bed and take my virginity.

"You started growling when I moved and you were nuzzling my neck Fido." I snapped. My nerves were fried and wasn't I the victim in this equation?

His eyes narrowed and nailed me right between the eyes. "Get out." He pointed at the door like I was a naughty child.

He didn't have to tell me twice. I stuck my tongue out at him and I stormed out of the room slamming the door as I went. I hurt my shoulder in the process, but I didn't care. It felt good. I hoped I knocked over a picture or something in the process.

He was the one cuddling with me I didn't touch him. Hell he invited me to sleep with him first. I was thinking maybe he could stay up and talk with me. Yeah that was totally girlie of my but I wasn't ready for sleep and I am in fact a girl so sue me.

I found my ruined dress in a heap in the bathroom as I went to at least turn some toothpaste around in my mouth. The medicine cabinet was bare so that was a no go. Angry at having to walk around with funky breath I snatched on the running shoes, I tied the sheet around my body like a toga and stormed out of the apartment.

I wasn't sure where the hell I was going or where the hell I was but once I got down to the lobby I walked out of the front door like I was Princess Di. I was wrapped up in a bed sheet, but I still had my dignity.

I was standing in front of a five story apartment building facing a little park. I had no idea where I was. I had only been in Shreveport for a few months and I had spent most of my time at the office my apartment and Sage's apartment. I turned left and started walking hoping to find something that looked helpful. On the corner I found a working payphone.

If the dating gods were pissed at me Lady Luck was singing my praises. The phone actually worked. I called Sage collect, geez I didn't even know you could do that anymore. I asked her to come pick me up. She was halfway out of the door before we hung up. I had to give her address off the phone.

Alcide didn't come looking for me the entire time I stood on that corner waiting for Sage. Some protection he turned out to be.

Sage tore me a new one the minute I got into her car. She cussed me out six ways from Sunday. Andrew Dice Clay would have been impressed. There were some curse words in that I had never heard before. She should write a dictionary. Sage yelled at me the entire ride back to my apartment. I was just too tired to go get my car and then drive myself back home.

"And is that blood in you hair?" she asked once she soft of calmed down.

I reached up and felt around my head. I didn't remember bleeding. I had forgotten the whole slamming against the building part of my ordeal. "Yeah I guess it is." I said yawning.

"Jesus, Nolan why the hell didn't you call the cops?" She had to swerve to avoid hitting a slow moving mom van on the highway. I swear I would rather face those wolves again.

I sighed, "Sage I told you this guy came and helped me. He took care of those guys better than the police would have done. They were Weres." I told her.

"Like on TV?" The conversation of my foiled rape had just gone out the window.

"Yeah like on TV. Seriously the guy that saved me was an actual honest to god tiger. Built like a brick house." Maybe if I could distract her with tales of Quinn she would forget to keep yelling at me. Lord knows my throbbing head needed the break. "He had purple eyes and smelled like fresh cut grass and soap." She turned down my street.

"Was he cute?" She took a hand off the wheel to fluff her hair like she was a second away from meeting the man in the flesh.

I shrugged, "He sort of looked like one of those old fashioned strong men. Not really my type." I felt like Quinn could flick my into the wall with his tongue. That was a great quality to have in a body guard or an armored truck, but not in someone you wanted to sleep next to. I was barely five feet tall so I was too damn small for that.

"Don't knock it till you try it." She pulled into my assigned parking spot and killed her engine. "Do you want me to come up with you?" She asked. "I could play Florence Nightingale." She offered.

I shook my head, "No I will be alright." I climbed out of her car and leaned down into the open window. "If anyone asks just tell them I got food poisoning or something and I will be in tomorrow."

"Nolan are you sure you're alright. For a black chick you're looking kind of white around the gills."

"I'm fine. I just need a hot bath and a cold drink." I assured her. She waited till I was at my door before she pulled off. I waved her out. "Damn," I remembered my house keys were still in my car which was still over on Trade Street. I went next door to Mrs. Crandell's house to get my spare key.

I almost had to knock the door down to get her to open it. I had to help the poor dear change her hearing aid battery. She gave me a plate of chocolate chip cookies so I figured I had done my good deed for the day.

Once I got home I ran myself the hottest bath I could stand. Standing in front of my full length mirror I saw the collection of bruises I was sporting. I had a huge hand print around my throat and scratches and welts on my legs. I ran my hands over the bruises trying to erase the memories. I could still smell his breath.

I climbed into the tub and winced. Maybe the water was a little too hot, but I wasn't about to get out. I sat in that water and tried not to think about what would have happened it Quinn hadn't ran in claws a blazing as it was. It was no use thinking about that. Quinn had gotten there in time. So what I was a little battered and bruised. Bruises healed.

I stayed in the tube till I looked like a walnut. Which while a delicious nut was not an attractive nut. After my soak some of my bruises didn't look so bad anymore. I slathered myself in coco butter and climbed in the bed. I deserved this nap before I could get any sleep my phone rang. I cursed something fierce and snatched it off the hook. "Hello," I snapped. All I wanted was a solid 8 hours of sleep. Why was that so hard?

"Nolan," I sat up straight in my bed.

"Alcide?" I asked just to make sure I wasn't really asleep imagining his husky voice.

"Are you at home?" He asked. I guess he figured he didn't have to announce himself.

"Yeah." I don't know why but I ran a hand through my hair trying to fix it.

"Stay there I'm bringing your car." Then the line went dead. As tired as I was I hopped out of bed. It wasn't that I was a dirty person but I was a bit of a pack rat so I had papers strewn all over my apartment and since I fancied myself a budding author there were plot sticky notes posted everywhere. I turned into a human hoover snatching up all the post it notes and paper. I dumped the whole load into the bottom of my closet which was clear because all my shoes were stacked up in the corner of my room.

I threw all my dirty dishes in the dish washer. I started a load of laundry and then ran my actual hoover through the entire apartment. I was covered in a sheen of sweat when I heard the knock at the door. I grabbed a dish towel and did a quick once over before opening my door.

Alcide stepped into my apartment without invitation nor preamble. He was dressed in a polo shirt and stone washed jeans. I tugged at the bottom of me Saints jersey feeling like something the cat drug through the mud.

My apartment was standard issue. The door deposited you in the living room with the kitchen off the the right. A little dining room was tucked into the corner. A short hallway led you back to my bedroom and bathroom. It was small but it was home. Alcide looked around like he was thinking of listing my apartment. "I brought your car." he said.

I hadn't even been thinking about my car, "Well thanks." I said looking pointedly at the door. He might be gorgeous but he was an ass.

He turned and looked at me as if he knew what I was thinking, "I'm sorry about this morning." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

"Well you should be," I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I'm trying to apologize you don't have to be a bitch about it." He growled.

"Some way to apologize calling me a bitch." I shot back. "Look I can see you don't want to be here, and that you don't like me very much. So excuse the hell out of my for being dumped in your bar after surviving a rape attempt by a pack of your flea buddies." I was right pissed at this point and there was no stopping my mouth. "So how about you go back to the dog pound and I stay here with my Doctor Who dvd's and my hot chocolate and we just tell Quinn that you were really nice to me. Because frankly I'm tired of your funky ass attitude." I opened my door and stood back so he could pass without touching me.

He stalked to the door, "You women are all the same. When you need protection you come running with your tear streaked faces asking for help, but when the dust settles you disappear." He gripped the edge of my door. The wood started to crack under the pressure of his grip.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked. I was sure I had just met Alcide.

He snarled at me. I yelped and jumped away from him. "Quinn will pick you up tonight." He bared his teeth at me before storming out of my apartment.

How in the hell did I just piss off a Were?


	3. Fae Lesson One

As you can imagine I didn't get that nap. Damn him. Double damn him. If I were taller and maybe hundred pounds heavier I would be working up to punching Alcide in the face, but since I was only 4' 7 and 105 pounds I was going to have to settle for wearing my leather boots and kicking him really hard in the shines.

I fumed for nearly two hours, not even Martha Jones and the Doctor could calm me down. Sorry Martha. I switched the TV to NickToons hoping there was a Avatar marathon on. I was in luck, 'The Tales of Ba Sing Sa' was starting. I let Toph, Sokka, Aang and Katara help my mind settle. It was funny how cartoons still made me smile and feel like a little girl.

My phone rang a few times, but I let the machine pick it up. It was mostly coworkers wishing me a speedy recovery. Sage was one of the best liars I knew and by tomorrow I was sure there was going to be a surprise party thrown for me in the gaming lounge. Which wasn't a bad thing. Some of my coworkers had mothers who were excellent bakers. Nothing like a red velvet cupcake to make a girl feel special.

After the fifth Avatar episode I managed to munch on some leftovers that I probably should have thrown out, but I was a sucker for Kung Pao chicken. I hadn't realized how hungry I was till I looked at the empty Chinese carton and the two empty cartons of Ben and Jerry Frozen Yogurt. Damn, I had never eaten like that before. At least my stomach was playing nice about all the extra work I was putting it through.

That happy thought gave me the energy to get dressed for this mysterious meeting with a Sookie. Whatever the hell that was. At least Evan was excited about it. Apparently a Sookie made life more interesting, and anything that made the life of a were exciting was certainly something I would have avoided under regular circumstances. Funny I hadn't thought once about what happened to me last night. I flipped through my closet as this thought skipped through my head. Was that normal? Didn't rape victims fall to pieces and withdraw from life? Or was that just what Lifetime wanted us to think? Was there something wrong with me that I wasn't more upset? Yeah I had a panic attack last night, but after my year long soak I felt right as rain?

Damnit I couldn't think about it anymore. It was giving me a headache. I thought about putting on a jersey dress and my leather boots, but I kept flipping through my closet. Somehow a dress didn't seem to be the uniform one wore to a bar that people who changed into salivating animals frequented. Something about dinner bells ran through my head but I couldn't catch it to form it into a proper witty remark. No one was here to hear it anyways. Best laid plans of sarcastic geeks.

I had a time with my hair. I had sweated out my perm so I was rocking a fierce Angela Davis afro which made me look all of 13 years old. I added a yellow headband which added two years on me. Well that was the best I could do. I had never been able to do my own hair beyond the occasional washing and blow dying. So I needed to make an appointment with Ki as soon as possible.

It was nearly 10 o'clock when I heard the knock. It was sort of gentle. Quinn's purple eyes pegged me in the chest as soon as I opened the door.

"Cute outfit," he said as he ducked into my apartment.

I looked down at myself. To see what was so cute about a JCPenny sundress and a pair of leggins. I squeaked and slapped my hands over my chest. I had hooked my bra up wrong and half a boob was waving hello to the world over the top of my yellow dress. I heard Quinn chuckle as I turned around to set my breasts to rights. "Thanks," I muttered once I had repositioned myself. How the hell had I missed the AC blowing across my nipple for an hour? Would Quinn ever catch me looking put together or was this the start of a revolving nightmare?

He was walking around my apartment looking at everything. Quinn was decked out like a Hell's Angles in his black jeans, black t-shirt and leather vest. He must have rode here on a Harley from Hell. He was too big to swing up on a little Kawasaki. He squinted as he thumbed through my small library. I suddenly felt like I should be apologizing for how small it was. He looked like a sandwich fighting to get out of a ziplock bag in my living room. "You might want to pull something over yourself. Its close to the full moon and its going to be hell enough keeping those wolves in their clothes without you gift wrapping yourself." He slipped into my kitchen and started poking around in like he owned the place. He came back out munching on a twinkie.

"I'm not gift wrapping myself." I protested. Seriously I was wearing a pair of jeans and some tees.

Quinn shrugged like he had done his good deed in warning me off baring my shoulders. I glowered at him as I walked back to my room to snatch my Sam Houston State hoodie off a hanger and shove it into my purse. It was too damn hot to wear it out of the house.

"Ok Tim Gunn I think I'm ready." He gave me a quizzical look. "You know Tim Gunn from Project Runway." His eyebrows knitted together further. I could see I was getting nowhere. "Never mind let's go." He pushed the rest of the twinkie into his mouth and followed me out the door.

He walked over to a Lincoln Towncar that looked out of place in my simple neighborhood. Most of the cars on my block were Honda Civics and Ford Mini Cooper was the flashest thing. Quinn opened my door which I thought was rather sweet. "Thanks," I said before he closed the door on me.

He climbed in and then we were off. With a clearer head I was able to pay more attention to where we were going, but I might as well have been reading the street signs in Korean because I still had no idea where we were going and how we were getting there.

"Do you live around here?" I asked as a way to uncross my eyes from my dismal sense of direction.

"I move around a lot for my job. Mostly I live out of a suitcase in a hotel." He maneuvered around a high school activity bus. They kids were hanging out of the windows holding 'Go Team' banners and waving pom poms. Was it still football season? I didn't follow sports all that much. I was what people called a sexy geek. Most of my activities were of the solo indoor sort. Which was fine with me. If last night was any indicator I'm not a social butterfly and it might be a good idea to stay inside from now on.

I wondered what a weretiger did as a job. "What do you do?" I asked. I mean would he be a lion tamer? Ok that was lame as hell, but it was all I could come up with.

He chuckled as if he could hear my thoughts. Geez that would be a bummer. I was more of a moron in my own head. I didn't to broadcast that to the world. "I'm an event coordinator for Extreme(ly) Elegant Events." Somehow I couldn't picture him barking at a bridesmaid about the cut of her dress.

"So you're a wedding planner?" I asked just to make sure we were on the same paragraph.

"Among other things, but its not what you think. I do vampire weddings." Oh well that made sense.

"Were you born a tiger or did someone turn you?" Might as well gt to what I really wanted to know.

He threw his head back and laughed for real, "You think I was born in a zoo to a roaring crowd or something?" He asked.

"I have no idea. I mean its not like I thought people who turned into animals was real. I mean hell I didn't believe in vampires either." Who wanted to believe that the stuff of nightmares were walking, talking tax payers. Well in some states they payed taxers.

He shook his head as his chest shook with mirth. "We're born just the same as you. Something that just makes us different. Me and my mother are the only tigers that I know of." I jerked and looked at him. His mom was a tiger? She must be one kick ass woman.

I wondered what it would be like to have that sort of power at your disposal. The most powerful thing I had was my MacBook Pro. I was sure how many attempted rapes I could prevent with it, but I could google like a mofo. What was it to be human but to have something humming along on the inside that made you special. I thought having my by line in a national geek zine would make me special, but here was a guy who could turn into a tiger. Like a real jungle book tiger.

"What did you mean last night when you said I wasn't all human?" I whispered. The question had been tapping me on the shoulder all day, but between Alcide and the Avatar I had kept it bay. But heading to the bar once again it came screaming back to the forefront of my mind. Quinn shifted his big ass around in his seat. "I have a right to know." I told him jutting my chin out.

"You smell like the person whose coming to meet us. From the things I hear through the grapevine she can help." And that was all he said. His face shut down like a steel trap. Well at least he gave me something.

I pulled a cherry blow pop out of my purse to give my mouth something to do other than talking. My foster mom had drilled into my head that my runaway mouth would be my undoing. Honestly who said undoing? But as a writer I had learned the value in silence and if I had to use a confection to achieve that, well yippee for my cavities.

He pulled back into the chain link surrounded parking lot from the night before. I hadn't even realized we had arrived. Sometimes blow pops were just that good.

He had to haul himself out of the car like the car was giving birth to him. I winched as I thought of his mother having to push him out. I hoped she had good drugs.

On that happy thought I got out as well. I felt better coming back to the place fully clothed and in a better frame of mind. For whatever reason I got the feeling this wasn't going to be a cake walk.

Quinn looked both ways before we crossed the street. I found that rather odd. The man could have stopped a Mac truck with a glare. What the hell did he think a Nissan Altima would do? Piss him off? The same man was guarding the door. He seemed to be vibrating as we walked up. Quinn pushed me behind him.

"You good?" he asked the guy. I tried to peek around his tree trunk waist, but it was a no go.

"Yeah just itching for a run." The man's voice sounded like he was sitting on top of the washing machine during a really violent spin cycle. "Go on. Pack is expecting you." It took him several time sot close his hand around the door proper. I got a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach. What the hell was going on?

Quinn obviously didn't care what was going on with the man or he know what was going on with the man and he wasn't sharing. We walked into the place and headed straight for the bar.

It sounded like we were late for the party. I heard glasses slamming down on the wooden tables followed by raucous laughter. Typical bar behavior as it were. As we turned the corner I wanted to high tail it back home and bar the doors. Most of the guys looked like they lived on Wheaties and steroids with a dash of whiskey here and there. There were enough muscles in the room to give Bowflex orgasm. Most of the guys were handsome in the maniac killer type way. It Sage's wet dream. She was into the dangerous type of guys. Maybe she needed to walk on the Were side of life to cure her of that. These guys looked like they would have loved nothing more than to snap a girls neck while they were deep in her honey box.

I nearly gagged on the thought.

Everyone was dressed in all manner of leathers and Levis. I noticed some of them were twitching like crack fiends. What the hell was going on with these guys? One guy looked up at me as he bared his teeth. They looked like dagger in hi mouth.

I yelped and clung to Quinn's wrist like white on rice.

"Nothings going to bother you here," Quinn assured me. Just to be sure I still clung to him arm. We weaved through the throng of guys. Most of them took the business of their beers too seriously to notice me which I was glad for. The nervous energy in the place was starting make my body hum and my head hurt. A few girls were scattered here and there, but they looked as lethal and twitchy as the men did.

We made it across the place and over to the bar. Alcide was holding it up. I was guessing that was his usual spot or his full time job. Either way he was doing a good job at it. He ignored me and I glowered at him. I knew two year olds with better attitudes.

We milled around a bit at the bar. Mostly everyone was ignoring us. I thought it a bit rude, but really what did I have to say to them? I gave up trying to think of Were icebreakers. Quinn wrapped his ass around a bar stool and I went to do the same. It took me a minute to climb up onto a bar stool. The thing was at least five feet off the ground to begin with. As if I weren't feeling like a child at the adult table already. Quinn knocked back a few shots in quick succession. I admired his tenacity. I nursed my little Bud Ice. I wasn't a big alcohol drinker and no matter how much I ate an entire beer was enough to put me on my ass.

After last night I never wanted to be that drink again.

A few growls rippled through the throng of leather clad bar patrons but they settled down as quickly as they got amped up. I was jittery and couldn't keep my hands still. I tapped out a quick little ditty on the bar top. When I got bored with that I kicked my legs against the bar to the tune of 'Walk This Way." I felt like ants were marching one by one across the nape of my neck but every time I reached back there nothing was there. It was the most curious feeling and I wasn't sure I liked it. I threw back the rest of my beer to keep from spinning off the bar stool and zooming around the room like a Tasmanian devil. What the hell was wrong me? I was acting like a ADHA kid hopped up on Redbull and a pound of sugar. I slapped another blow pop in my mouth. I felt a string of nonsense trying to spill out of my mouth. I didn't need to alert anyone to the battle that was raging in my body.

We seemed to be waiting for something and I had never figured out why they said patience was a virtue. I wanted to pick up a table and crack it over someone'e head.

I was actually reaching over to grab something to throw across the room when a spark of electricity shot through my body. It felt as if someone stuck a taser down my pants. "Speak of the devil," Quinn muttered and turned around. I swung my stool around to see what he was talking about.

I was nearly vibrating at this point and it was hard to get both of my eyes to focus on one thing at a time. They seemed to want to look in two different directions. The what Quinn was referring to turned out to be a bouncing blond with enough boobs to keep Victoria Secret busy for a few seasons. Something about her felt familiar but I was sure I would remember if I had met Country Barbie. She was the color of a nut which I took to mean she tanned naturally. Her curtain of blonde hair was pulled up into a tight pony tail. That swished back and forth. I was sure she was hypnotizing the people behind her. She was sporting a pair of skimpy black shorts, a white bow necked t-shirt and black Nikes. She stopped and catted up a few of the patrons. I gathered she was a friend by all the smiles and giggles she received. Evan seemed particualy taken with her.

However cute as a button she was the woman that walked in behind her captured all the attention. Something in my screamed that I run away from the willowy woman as fast as I could.

She too was a blonde, taller than the first and backlight like she was carrying around a spotlight in her shoes. I wrinkled my nose. Why the hell would someone want to highlight themselves? The taller blonde was dressed on one of those Chanel power suits that I always saw on the Real Housewives. Classic but seriously out of place in this blue collar bar. The willowy blonde completed her WASP look with a string of pearls around her neck. Whereas the first blonde got well wishes and smiles the tall blond was growled and even snarled at.

VAMPIRE!

The world rang out so loud in my head I nearly toppled over. I had to take a few deep breaths. Something wonky was going on with me and the appearance of the devil as Quinn pointed out did not seem to be the answer I needed.

Alcide sighed and turned around. It brought me back to reality. I grappled down my bar stool and stood up. Quinn started to preen himself as the blond got closer. The Doublemint blondes finally made it through their fan club. The tall blond's eyes locked onto my and the flight response nearly had me sprinting through the bar on the backs of the leather brigade.

Once the little blond saw Alcide her face darkened. That was interesting. "Fucking Sookie," He muttered. Well if that didn't say sexual frustration I didn't what would. He must have been up against some pretty stiff competition if she turned him down. Ah hell I didn't intend for that to be a pun, but there you have it.

Well slap me twice and call me Becky. Sookie was a name. Someone's actual name. Geez what the hell were her parents thinking?

"Alcide," Well she gave as much attitude as she got. So I couldn't hate for her her height. Sokkie as it turned out looked at Quinn. A sad smile skipped across her face. It matched the expression on Quinn's face. He moved to take a step in her direction but thought better of it. Sookie's breath hitched when she noticed the movement. Wow this Sookie certainly got around. Maybe she was free for some pointers. I couldn't even keep a guy from standing me up for a first date.

After the ping pong game she played between Alcide and Quinn, the latter looking sullen at losing and the former looking sullen that he had played, she turned and looked at me. "Hi," she gave me a megawatt smile. To which I managed to return. Though my skin felt rubbed raw at this point. "You must be something special for Quinn to ask me here." She didn't include Alcide in this. Or she didn't know that they had the bright idea to call her together. I had no idea what was special enough to ask for the doublemint blonds to make a trip to see me.

"Well if you call having to be recused from an attempted rape special I'm your girl." I bounced back at her. She had the grace to blush and gasp. "Its not as bad as it sounds Quinn got there in time," Why the hell was I trying to reassure her about my rape?

The taller blonde's eyes locked in on me and I took a step back nearly empaling myself on the bar. The naked hunger in her eyes made me feel like a turkey about to be carved up. "You smell amazing," she breathed walking towards me. A pair of sparkling fangs ran out of her mouth and over her bottom lip. My body screamed at me to run

"Ok seriously what the hell is up with my smell?" Seriously I had scrubbed every nook and cranny of my body. What the hell were they smelling on me. The woman kept coming and Quinn stepped in front of me.

That didn't seem to faze the blonde she went to push him out of the way, "Pam." Sookie's voice was like a slap in the face. The vampire stopped and tore her eyes away from me.

Pam shook her head and took a few steps back, "I've got to wait outside." Pam seemed to me losing some war going on in her body and I had the sinking feeling if she lost the war I was going to end up on a milk carton. But she bolted instead.

I wasn't sure she moved till the napkins on the tables stirred in her wake.

Once she was gone Sookie turned and looked at me, "You're a faery?" she breathed looking at me. Before I could answer she threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. My face was buried in her breasts and I found it difficult to breath. I patted her on the back hoping she took my distress signal. Once she released me I had to drag the air into my lungs. Alcide glowered at me. Hey, if he wanted to dive into Sookie's breasts he could have at it. I don't do girls. Well I didn't do guys either, well what wasn't by choice. I would love to be doing guys they just weren't lining up to do me.

Once I pulled myself out of the dating bottomless pit my mouth honest to god flapped open, "I'm a what?" But as soon as I asked the question I could feel it in my blood. That pulsing undercurrent that was currently making me jittery as hell.

"So its true?" Quinn asked. His eyes tracking the other bar patrons who looked ready to bolt as well.

Sookie nodded, "If Pam reacted like that to her then she is faery." Sookie honestly beams at me. At this point I was getting tired of all her teeth. I just wanted to get to the bottom of this faery thing.

I waved my hands to get everyone attention, "Um hello. Still here." They were talking about me like I wasn't even old enough to vote and no one answering my questions.

"I'm sorry. I really hate when people do that to me." Sookie replied. "Can I hold your hand?" she asked. I looked at her like she was crazy.

"Why?" This night was starting to take a very unusual turn and I was all together sure I liked where it was going.

"It just helps me do what I need to do to find out what you are and who you come from." She explained. And she was going to do all this by holding my hand. I shrugged and held out my hand to her. We slapped palms. Her had was smooth and warm. I could feel her heart beating in her palm. We locked eyes.

_'She smells just like Niall' _

"I smell like who?" Sookie yelped and let go of my hand.

"You heard that?" she asked.

"Yeah." Didn't see say it out loud?

"You didn't say you were a telepath." Alcide said wrapping his ass around a bar stool.

"I'm not." I told them.

"Then how did you hear me. I wasn't speaking. You were listening to my thoughts" Sookie said looking a little miffed at me.

I threw my hands up, "I don't know it sounded like you were talking out loud. I didn't know that I was hearing your thoughts." She had just told me I was a faery and now she was getting pissed at all the weird things I could do. This was so not my fault and in a minute if everyone didn't stop staring at me I was going to throw a right bitch fit. How much damage I could inflict was still up in the air, but at least I could be loud.

"Could you do that before?" she asked.

I shook my head, "Nope. Until last night I was just a geek reporter nursing a bruised ego. Tony the tiger over there shows up and suddenly I'm a flipping faery you waltz in and now I can hear people's thoughts. So I don't have a fucking clue what is going on!" I stamped my foot. A few chuckles rang out in the bar and I whirled to glare at the culprit. The glare I hit all of them with wiped some of those smirks off their faces. I hadn't realized I was getting so pissed off.

I whirled back around to Sookie, Quinn and Alcide. "So someone is going to lay everything out of me on the table and then I will get to decide if I like what I am hearing or not. If I don't I'm walking out of this bar and all of you are going to leave me the hell alone or I like what I hear and we can go sing Kumbayah and braid each other's hair." I announced crossing my arms over my chest and daring someone to do something other than what I had just told them to do.

"No need to get your panties in a wad." Sookie said. I knew at that point we weren't going to be friends.

"The state of my panties are none of your concern. You should be more worried about what's going to happen if I don't get some answers." I told her.

Alcide looked up from his beer with a smirk slapped across his face. Well score one for the little team. Go me. I had made Alcide smile.

"The easiest way to explain it that they are the basic supernatural being. The fae are magical creatures who exist in another world. Elves, brownies, angles, they are all fae. Magical beings. Same as vampires and Were's I suppose. Those the fae consider themselves a class above them even humans. They can appear to be human or utterly alien. My great-grandfather is their prince." She said that with such a sneer like she was automatically higher on the food chain than me. If I were indeed a faery. The jury was still out on that. "Faeries are like catnip to vampires. They can smell it in our blood." She explained. "They are dangerous around faeries. They can;t control themselves.

"So I'm a fairy godmother or something?" The only things I knew about faeries involved Walt Disney and a pumpkin.

"That is just a job they have. Not an actual fae being." Wow her vocabulary left a lot to be desired, but I kept that to myself. "You must be closer to your fae ancestor if Pam could smell you. Usually vampires have to literally taste you." I shuddered and remembered the flight response my body had when Pam walked into the bar.

So my body knew something my mind didn't. Well wasn't that a kiss hello for you. "So how do we find out if I'm really fae?"

"Oh you are fae we just don't know what kind and who your fae parent is. Relationships with humans was strictly forbidden, but I know who we can ask about..." I turned towards the door... **BOOM!**

Whatever else Sookie going to say was cut off by the massive explosion that ripping through the club scattering us around like discarded dishwater.


	4. From Mother, With Love

Time slowed down as my body was launched into oblivion. Funny what your mind chooses to zoom in on when you are being blown up. Later in my bathtub I would ponder this phenomenon.

I watched the macabre dance of limbs and bodies parts as the flames lit up the room in a flash bomb. I felt a timey whimy shift in things. If I were honest with my self I would admit that I heard the TARDIS land in the middle of the flames, but of course all of that could be chalked up to the fact that I was in the middle of a bomb site that used to be a bar filled with Weres.

I felt glass and wood whipping around my body. Oh great, I was going to be bruised all over again. Black people were not attractive with bruises, trust me on this.

I saw Quinn and Alcide rip through their hunan forms to shift into tiger and wolf respectively. Quinn tackled me into a crumbling wall, at least I had a somewhat soft fall, and Alcide leapt toward Sookie.

My eyes exploded in my head as me and Quinn tattooed the floor with our faces.

Quinn growled and I was sure I screamed, or howled. It was an inhuman sound that escaped my lips. The situation called for it so sue me.

We bounced a few times as the flames roared around us. Quinn rolled us away from a piece of falling roof. There was no time to catch out breaths. I climbed to my feet looking around to see who was still alive. My vision sharpened and my ears twitched. I had no idea what as going on but I felt something swirling in my veins. It was pumping me full of energy. I felt the heat spreading through my body. I wanted to laugh at the feeling. It was like slamming back a case of Redbull and chasing it with a espresso the size of Texas.

A figure launched itself out of the flames aiming straight for me. My body reacted before my brain could catch up my arm reached up into empty space. My eyes wondered what the hell my hand was doing but when my fingers wrapped around a handle my arm pulled a sword into existence. It was a long katana sword, but the material wasn't steel it shimmered like gold. With a flick of my sword arm the head of the man went in one direction and the body landed at my feet. "Holy hell," I breathed.

While my eyes were still stuck on stupid snarls and growls rose up over the sound of splintering wood and groans of the fallen. A fight was going on. This hadn't been a random bombing. Someone had tried to kill us. Well scratch that, they were trying to kill us.

I jumped over Quinn's body leaping back into the fray. I was good and pissed off now. Figures were moving through the smoke and fog. Something screamed in my blood and my fight and flight response came roaring back with a vengeance, "Vampires," I hissed. Since Pam had been the only seemingly invited vampires I figured these were not friends. These guys were on clean up duty. Mop up any stragglers who happened to survive the bombing. Man, I watched way too much TV.

The vampires zeroed in on my like tracker beams. I must be bleeding, but I figured the glowing sword I was swinging was enough of a advertisement for an ass kicking as anything else.

Three of them circled me and my heart started pounding. I had never been in so much as a fist fight but with that golden sword in my hand my body was crouching down into an attack position as if I were a trained warrior. "Ok this is weird." I said to no one in particular.

I heard a growl behind my back and I really hoped it was a friend. "Get the faery. Kill the rest." A voice commanded from the fog. Holy pudding cup Batman! They were after me. What the hell had I done to deserve special attention.

"Have to get through me first asshole," I growled.

The vampires attacked. They moved faster than my eyes could track but some other sense kicked in and I was able to twirl and behead one of them as they appeared in front of me. The blood splattered across my face and I danced away from a strike from the other vampire. Quinn had shaken off the explosion enough to attack the third vampire. Two more vampires appeared out of the smoke and headed straight for me. This was getting really unfair.

Some of the bar patrons were moving around. The front of the building had been blown open and the nip in the arm was creeping into the place. The fresh oxygen caused the flames to dance higher and close to all the downed bodies. "If you can move get the hell out of here! Carry anyone else still alive!" I shouted. Bodies started moving. I wanted to thank whatever god or fairy there was that more people were moving than not moving. I hadn't been keeping track of the vampires and I was rewarded with a punch to the stomach for my faux pa.

I doubled over in pain as the vampire tried to rip my throat out. I slashed and removed his hand for the effort. With another flick I claimed his head too. The rest of the fight was a blur of blood and flying heads. I saw Quinn once or twice claiming as many vampires as I did. We were a wonderful pair in our deadly dance.

There was a lull in the endless stream of vampires and I was able to see that Sookie had been knocked unconscious while Alcide had a table leg protruding from his belly. Neither of them were moving. I kept them at my back since they had slammed into a wall that was still pretty much intact.

The vampire walking through the debris pulled something out from behind its back. "A gun!" I screeched. No that was really unfair. A vampire with a damn gun. I guess this one was smarter than the rest. He wasn't coming within sword reach. The vampire smiled and we started to dance around each other. He matched my feint left with a lunge to the right. I skipped back away from him. The vampire pulled the trigger and I ducked. Wood rained down on my head.

The vampire caught me with a left hook to the face. It snapped my neck back and I stumbled over a pierce of furniture. The vampire was on top of me in an instant. He wrestled me to the ground and my sword clattered out of my hand when I landed. I cursed loudly.

He slapped me and scrambled my thoughts. "You smell good bitch." He leaned down and licked my face. His eyes rolled back into his head in ecstasy. "I had heard stories about faeries, but I never believed it?" he breathed leaning down into my face. He looked like he was ready to blow his load all over my face. My stomach wanted to stage a revolt all over the floor. "They want you alive but I think I might just drain you." He said snaking out his tongue to like at my face again.

My hand was reaching around for my sword.

"Rockabye baby." I told him as my hand closed around the handle of my sword. In a swift move I ram the sword up through the vampires chest. It exploded in a shower of blood and gore. "Oh gross,". I dropped the sword to wipe off my face with my hands. Which didn't help.

"Did you really just fucking say that?" Alcide groaned. He was flat on his back and laying in a big pool of his own blood. I would have chuckled but I was having a hard time catching my breath. I had never worked so hard in life. Nor killed anything. Bugs didn't count in my book. Sookie was moving and groaning on the ground. At least she was alive.

I pushed myself up off the floor to survey the damage. Headless bodies were scattered everywhere, but there were only a few were not moving. My heart clenched. I wanted to kill the vampires all over again for that.

A few places in the bar were still on fire but most of the flames had been doused by the sprinkler system. Me and Quinn seemed to be the only ones left still standing and moving. "Quinn I need you human," I said to the tiger.

There was no way I was strong enough to lift Sookie nor drag Alcide to safety. So I was going to leave the heavy lifting to him.

It took him a moment to change back. The minute he was human I think I fainted into his arms. The energy just draining right out of me. Luckily Quinn caught me up in his arms.

"Fuck your hit." He cursed.

I shook my head, "Not my blood." I told him as I tucked my head into his neck. I heard the sirens and felt the flashing lights boring into my frontal lobe but for the life of my I couldn't let my head to make a snappy remark about it. Quinn cradled me out the front of the bar. I felt him talking to a few people through the rumbling in his chest. I was laid down on a stretcher. "Don't leave me," I begged gripping two of his fingers. I didn't want to be alone and Quinn was the only one that seemed to give a damn whether I kept on breathing or not.

I was manhandled this way and that way by the paramedics and then by the nurses and doctors at the hospital. I felt like a ping pong by the time I was sent up to a recovery room. I had a broken arm and a concussion, but oh boy the drugs they were pumping into me put me in deep space nine and I was loving every minute of it.

I woke up in a clean room that smelled like old people and disinfectant. My nose tried to wiggle off my face in response. I couldn't blame it. I hated the smell of bleach.

There was a knock at my room door and I tried to turn over, but my IV caught and I yelped as it pulled at my arm. Quinn dipped into the room and I perked up. He looked no worse for wearing at having been blown up. Whereas I was swaddled like a newborn in bandages and gauze. I felt like a tick after a good meal. "How you feeling?" he asked lowering himself down into one of the chairs in the room. It was a surprise he could fit. The thing looked like it was built for Barbie's dream house and not a mountain of a man that morphed into a tiger at will.

"Like I've been hit with a sledge hammer," my voice didn't even sound right. It didn't sound like me. I reached for the ginger ale that they had set out for me. I was too far from the little side table. Quinn had to get up and hand me the cup. I gave him a tight smile that pulled at the stitches above my right eye. "How is everyone?" I asked once I settled back against my pillow.

"Alcide and Sookie are still in surgery. Five casualties and I don't know who else is here." He winced as he stretched out his legs under my bed.

"Are you ok?" I asked. I found that I really cared how he was doing. That was news to my brain, but my heart was with the program.

"Yeah I'm fine." He fixed those purple eyes on me and I felt myself flushing and not from the heat in the room. "Why did you ask me to stay with you?" for a man his size he spoke so softly.

I shook my head, "I don't know." I took a sip of my soda. "I just didn't want to be alone." But I didn't think I would have asked Alcide to come with me. Alcide was the kind of man that women noticed right off the bat. He was tall, tanned and too damn sexy to be legal, but once he opened his mouth his allure was lost in a see of asshatness. Yeah that's a word. I didn't tell him any of this. I didn't want to talk about my revelations of Alcide with him.

"I see." He said like he really did see what I was trying to say. Well kudos for him because I was still I the dark. He pushed himself up from the chair and came over to my bed. My breath hitched up a notch and my heart skipped enough beats for me to do a remix. I looked up at him. I wasn't sure what this moment was calling for. He leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my lips. Fire flared through my chest right down to the top of my underwear. My body jerked off the bed as he deepened the kiss.

With a smirk on his face he pulled back and went to sit back down in his chair, "Been wanting to do since you ripped your dress off for me." He said. To which I blushed bright red. He chuckled once he saw how that affected me. No I don't have a lot of kissing experience to compare that to, but I've seen enough romantic comedy kisses to last a lifetime and that kiss Quinn just laid on me would have gotten an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize.

I cleared my throat and thought about something intelligent to say. Anything really. My body was still flushed from Quinn's kiss and my mind, I could feel my mind was starting to grind to a halt and contemplate the meaning of a name, "What about Sookie?" Oh thank god I cold still form a proper sentence.

He looked at me, "She made it clear that I wasn't the flavor of the month for her." He sounded a tad bitter.

"Am I the poor man's Barbie substitute?" I mean hell if he were still pining after Sookie I didn't want him whipping those lips on me just for general purposes. Or to make himself feel like a man because she shot him down.

Quinn shook his head, "You aren't a substitute for anything. I wanted to kiss you because of you. Not because I'm still hung up on Sookie." Well if I couldn't take him at his word there was no reason to ask him about it.

I sighed and let the matter go. It wasn't like that kiss meant he wanted anything more from me than the kiss. So I was just going to take the kiss as what it was a kiss. I wasn't going to read some romantic comedy BS into it. "What about the vampire that came with Sookie?" I said breaking up the running commentary going on in my head.

I don't know why I was asking about her. She tried to eat me with a side of leather 4 inch boots. "Pam got a little burned, but she is no worse for wear." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. Seemed like Pam garnered less thought than the weather in Thailand. Which was fine with me. I was right damn tired of vampires at this point. "You going to tell me what happened back there?" He asked as he crossed his arms across his swelled chest.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "I have no idea. My reflexes just took over." And it was the honest truth. If I had stopped to think about it we would all be dead. As good as Quinn was numbers would have won out of over sheer strength. Not every one could be a King Leonidas. Though I was sure Quinn's body could have put Gerald Butler's to shame. "I guess my little Kill Bill routine proves that I'm a faery." Something in my blood sighed with content. So ok, my body had already told me that I was in fact a faery, but saying it out loud finally confirmed it in my head.

I was not human. At least not 100%. I felt like Dr. Xavier should have been rolling into my room to invite me up to his school any minute.

It wasn't that hard for me to settle on. My entire life I had felt like an outsider in the throng of humanity I had grown up in. Well as much of a throng a town of 25,000 could feel like. My birth had not been the stuff of Christmas carols and baby showers. I was born in the spring and promptly left for dead. Landing on the doorsteps of city hall with nothing more than a full diaper and a pacifier was not the way I wanted to start my life, but finding out that there is something special about me was a good way to continue my life.

Not knowing who my parents were was making a bit more sense now. Not that I was forgiving them for dropping me off like smelly laundry. That was a torch I was going to keep burning. "Do you hate me that much?" A soft voice asked. My eyes flew open. I hadn't even realized I had fallen asleep.

Quinn was snoring away in the chair looking as peaceful as a tabby cat, he would crush me into orange pulp if I ever said that out loud I was sure. The voice however was coming from the woman sitting at the end of my bed.

"Wha?" I slurred.

She chuckled and I felt warm all over. "I asked if you really hated me that much?" The woman was possible the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She was the sort of thin that Giselle would have drooled over with coffee colored skin that shone like a new penny. If Helen of Troy was said to have a face that launched a 1,000 ships this woman could have sparked World War III with her smile. Which sported perfect polished teeth and even a little dimple on the left side. She was dressed in a flowing gown the color of the sword I had pulled out of thin air.

Something squeezed in my heart as she turned her coppered colored eyes on me. I remembered her face. "Mom," I croaked. She nodded slowly. Of all the times I imagined meeting my mom this surprising had not been one of my fantasies. "I uh..." my voice gave out on me and tears slide down my face.

She patted my leg, "Do not think that if given the chance to keep you I wouldn't have. Faeries do not spawn young much and we value them greatly, but." she stopped speaking and I wanted to scream at her to keep talking. I could listen to her musical voice till my dying day. Even then I wold beg her to give my eulogy. "I had to leave you in this world alone. It was not my choice. I hope you believe me." she searched my face.

I wanted to hate her. I wanted to scream at her about all the wasted birthday wishes I used to try and bring her back. All the chess tournaments I searched for her face in the audience. The school newspaper articles I wanted to tape to our refrigerators to get her approval and maybe a cookie for my efforts. All I managed to get out was, "Mommy." in a soft whisper.

She was at my side in an instant. She gathered me gentle in her arms and rocked my like the baby I was feeling like. I sobbed harder than I had ever sobbed in my life and then some. I felt my toes shaking with the effort. "Oh my sweet Nolan," she cooed. I could feel the warmth from her body flowing into me. The aches and pains in my body replaced with her heat. The stitches above my eye fell away. We stayed in that embrace till the sun came up and trekked across the sky to hang in the middle of the horizon.

Quinn woke up with a long yawn and a lot of vigorous scratching. He found us still hugging. "Hemera," He yelped bolting up from his chair and dropping down to one knee to bow at my mom. What the hell? I looked at him with raised eyebrows. How in the hell did he know who my mom was.

My mom leaned back from our hug. She looked over at Quinn with a small smile playing acorss her face. "Your deference is much appreciated tiger, but unnecessary. I left my crown at home," she chuckled as she stood up from my bed. "You have done me a great service protecting my child not once but twice. I am in your debt. Rise warrior." My mother touched Quinn on the shoulder and he stood up. She was no longer smiling. "Dangerous times are yet brewing for her. Will you stand by her side?" My mother asked. I sat up in my bed.

Quinn looked at me and then back at my mother, "Yes." he declared. Well didn't this just make my heart go zing, zing, zing.

My mother reached up and unclasped a small broach from her gown. It was a pair of wings. "Carry this as my badge warrior. You will be my daughter's vanguard in this coming war. For war is coming from Faery. Tonight my brethren struck the first blow. I can not defend Nolan in this realm. Carry forth my wrath on swift wings John Quinn." On gossamer wings that I hadn't noticed before she hovered above the ground to place a kiss on Quinn's forehead. His whole body lit up like a Christmas tree in the Rockefeller Center.

Hemera turned to me. "Nolan my daughter there is much left unsaid between us, but I can not tarry. Know that I have always loved you as the earth loves the sun. You are my beloved. Be safe." she smiled as she leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.

Before I could blink she was gone. Somehow my room felt like a brown bears cave in the middle of winter after she left.

Quinn looked like a glazed donut as he looked at me. "That was Hemera," he breathed.

I nodded like I had a clue who he was talking about. "I just call her mom." I said as I sat up and pulled the IV out of my arm. It didn't even sting. An angry beep started up.

"You're mom is like the queen of faeries. Like the original faery. Shit they named a greek goddess after her." He explained. He stared down at the pair of wings my mom had given him.

"What does that make me?" I sure didn't feel like a princess. I didn't think Disney was going to be asking me to pose for pictures in the Magic Kingdom.

"Something to reckon with," Was his simple answer. That got a smile out of me. A nurse burst into the room looking highly pissed off but she stopped when she saw the state I was in.

It took a few minutes for her to drag a doctor back into the room so I could be released. They couldn't explain how I had manged to mend myself in such short order and I didn't want to tell them it was faery dust. I doubted they wouldn't have believed me as fast as they would have slapped me into a straight jacket. But in the end me and Quinn were walking out that hospital in less than twenty minutes.

Quinn had gone to check on Sookie and Alcide who were resting up after their surgery. He had been assured that they would recover nicely. "I don't want to go home." I told Quinn.

He looked down at me, "I wasn't going to let you if you had tried." He answered.

Well that was good to hear. We grabbed a cab and he threw out an address that a I recognized as being on the riverfront. The radio in the cab was squawking about the bombing at the bar. Police were still combing through the evidence but it didn't look like a terrorist attack. Seriously? Did every bombing have to first be ruled out as a terrorist attack before they moved on to anything else. I wondered if they were going to come a calling on me.

"Oh hell Sage," I muttered. I had called her before Quinn had picked me up and told her where I was going. She was probably spitting teeth worrying about me.

"I called her while you were sleep." I glanced over at him. "Got the number off your phone." Well wasn't her enterprising, but I couldn't stay mad. Better for him to deal with Hurricane Sage than me.

The cab dropped us off in front of a smart looking hotel with crisp uniforms behind the counter. They didn't ask any questions when I walked in wearing a hospital johnny and a smile. I knew we both smelled like smoke and that was confirmed when we got on the elevator for the ride up to the sixth floor. I stretched out on the bed once we were inside his room. He went for the phone to order room service. He ordered enough food to feed an invading army. I hope the majority of that was for him.

After hanging up the phone he ducked into the bathroom and soon the sound of the shower running hit my ears. I clicked on the TV and was met with the images of the bombing. A redhead reporter was standing in the crater that had been the Hair of The Dog bar. Only the back wall remained. My heart was racing as I looked at the images. How was it possible that any of us had survived that?

Did they get the bomb schematics from Nickelodeon or something? There was a knock at the door. I switched the TV off to answer it. The bellhop pushed in two carts ladened down with platters of food. He started as he saw it was just me. I signed the receipt with a twenty percent tip. He smiled and ducked back out of the room.

I was in the middle of pouring syrup over my french toast when Quinn stepped out of the bathroom. His shaved head was gleaming with some sort of polish and he smelled like springtime. It was a curious smell for a man to have, but it didn't make him seem any less was wearing a pair of loose jogging pants and no shirt. His abs was so pronounced I was sure I could use them as a staircase to walk up to his face. He caught me looking and I blushed and went back to my french toast.

"I don't mind you looking Nolan." He rumbled as he stuffed a piece of bacon into his mouth. Well if that didn't set my face aflame I didn't know what else he could have said that would have done it. We sat munching on our respective breakfasts for lunch contently. I was glad Quinn didn't feel the need to fill the space with chitchat. Not that I wasn't in the mood but sometimes it was nice to just sit in silence and not have my brain trying to scramble for something witty or intelligent to say.

"What was my mom talking about? What war is coming?" I asked finally as I popped the top on a Sprite.

Quinn swallowed the slice of ham he had been munching on. "Something's been brewing in the supe world for a few years. There was a scuffle in the fae world when Sookie was kidnapped, but that was just the tip of the ice berg and it only settled a few scores. But this is a lot bigger involving more than just the fae. With Hemera involved I can see why." He swallowed a whole gallon of iced tea.

I nodded. I had no idea what he was talking about and it was irking me that Sookie knew more about the fae world that I did and it seemed I was higher up the food chain than she was. Not that I was the sort of person that held stuff like that over people's heads. I just wanted to know what the hell was going on. Since it seemed like people wanted me dead and I was still on the outside looking in. "Did you mean what you promised my mom?" I asked softly.

He fixed those purple eyes on me, "I never make promises I don't intend to keep." He wiped his mouth and stood up from the table. He had a look in his eye that made the butterflies in my stomach do the electric slide. "Relax Nolan I just want to grab a nap. Not tear your clothes off and fuck you till you pass out." He was saying that, but his eyes were telling me that was exactly what he wanted to do.

He stretched out beside me on the bed looking at me the entire time. He knew exactly what he was going to me and he was enjoying every minute of it.


	5. Merry Go Round Life

We spent the afternoon together, me and Quinn, and we kept our clothes on.

Well Quinn with his sweatpants and bare chest and me in his borrowed sweatpants and hoodie. I felt like a boy scout in a pup tent everything was so big on me. Though I think Quinn got a kick out of my being in his clothes.

We spent the afternoon playing video games and just hanging out. It was great. Quinn seemed quite surprised that I could beat him at Assassin's Creed. Like girls can't possible be good at video games.

I had Sage to thank for that. Playing her was good practice.

I was more of a computer RPGer than a video gamer, but I still handed him his ass. I would have left him as a stain on the pavement if we were playing World of Warcraft. I was a battle elf after all.

I got to know more about John Quinn. He seemed to like talking about himself. Not in the sense that he was arrogant it just felt like people didn't take the time to get to know him before they moved on to something they thought was better. He was having a ball answering my questions.

I was surprised to find that he read comic books. Quinn sparked me as the the typical jock. He was certainly big enough to dominate on the football field, but he was an outcast like me in high school so like me he filled his afternoons with comic books. It was hard to believe that he wasn't in the middle of the in-crowd. I guess I needed to amend my definition of the in crowd.

We compared notes on which books we had in our collections and what collectible books we had. Mine of course was a tad more extensive than his. I had been collecting since I was six, and I worked around an office full of Big Bang Theory addicts.

I was seeing Quinn in an whole new light and I wanted to kick myself that I had written him off so easily. I guess that's what happens when you judge a tiger by its stripes. Yeah I'm going to own that pun. "Would you have dinner with me?" He asked as I emerged from the bathroom after he had whopped me in our third straight game of chess. I had never been beaten before, hell I had won tournaments back in Texas, but Quinn was a master. Like Bobby Fisher master.

Well this was certainly a first. I had never been asked out to dinner by a guy before. I always had to do the asking, or begging in some instances. It took me nearly a month of playing phone tag with Josh to get him to agree to meet me for dinner. I tilted my head as I looked at him. It was a curious feeling to say the least. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I realized I hadn't answered his question.

"I've never been asked out on a date before." I told him.

"No shit?" He seemed genuinely surprised.

"No shit." I answered. "I was the only black kid in my small town high school and it didn't help that I was a foster kid. So guys weren't exactly beating down my door for dates. And I went to college to you know actually study." I shrugged. I didn't like laying out my dating woes, but there it was.

I felt like a diminutive Bridget Jones. Well Bridget got more dates than I did, but you get the point. "So was that a yes or a no on the date?" He asked.

I nodded yes. "I do need to go home and change." I looked down at the giant sweat pants I was swimming in and the dress/t-shirt, "Unless you plan on taking me to the McDonalds in Wal-Mart. Then I'm overdressed." I told him. I really hoped we were going to a nice sit down restaurant.

I wasn't a fussy date, but I wanted at least a clean bathroom if we went.

He chuckled which caused his pecs to tighten and release in a way that caused things below my belly button to tighten and release. "Don't worry baby I wouldn't take you to McDonalds." He climbed off the bed and found a shirt to put on.

He walked me downstairs to the lobby. People naturally parted for him. Where as anytime I wanted to get through a crowd I had to just crawl through legs. Once outside he opened the door to a waiting cab for me.

Before I could climb in he kissed me soundly and beautifully. It felt hot and possessive like he was marking me. I didn't know if I liked it, but I wasn't about to stop him. I was sure if the hotel were on fire I wouldn't have noticed. I swayed on my feet once he released me after the kiss. Quinn chuckled again before I hopped into a cab for the ride back home.

The ride to my apartment was strange. I didn't feel like the same person that I was two days ago. Good lord, had it only been two days since my life was turned upside down. I had almost been raped, saved by a weretiger, taken to a werewolf bar, been blown apart by vampires who liked to lick me (shudder), introduced to my mother who happened to be the queen of fairies and oh surprise, surprise I was a fairy too. Yep, my life had been turned upside down alright. I wasn't sure if that made me a princess or whatever, but it made me smile nonetheless.

It felt weird going back home to my little apartment. Not that I was getting a big head I just felt like a different person. My sardine space didn't fit me anymore.

The cab dropped me off at my little apartment and my heart sort of sank a little bit. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

I fished my keys out of the little blue bag the hospital people put my personal stuff in. I pushed open the door with my foot because I was pulling off Quinn's hoodie as I walked into the house. "What the hell!" I yelped.

A troop of little people were scurrying around my apartment packing up my things. They stopped moving to stare at me as I were the intruder. "What the hell is going on here?" I said to the one that sort of looked like she was in charge. If I had to guess she looked like a Keebler elf with her rosy cheeks and button nose.

I wondered if she had a roll of cookies in her pocket.

She bowed to me and I had to stifle a giggle, "We are packing up your things miss." she told me as a matter of course like it was normal for a gaggle of midgets to be in my house packing up my things.

"Ok um well thank you for that." I said slowly stepping back to be closer to the door. It was better to be safe than sorry. "But who told you to pack up my things?" I could play along with the insanity.

"Her majesty," she told me. Well that certainly solved the mystery for me.

"Yes ok that was awfully nice of her, but who is that?" The rest of the little people went back to packing up my things like the conversation had bored them.

"Your mother of course miss." The Keebler said.

I shook my head as I tried to process what she had just said. "My mom told you to come pack up my place? Why? And what are you?" I pointed at her.

"She said you are not safe here. She told us to come pack up everything and get it all moved into your new place. I'm a Brownie if it pleases you miss. Loyal servant of the royal household." She looked impatient to get back to her assigned task. Ok it seemed I was missing something here and asking leading questions was not going to get the information that I needed.

"Ok I've had a very long night of getting blown up and beheading vampires. I woke up in the hospital where I met my mother for the first time in my life. So can we please cut through all of this and you start from the beginning of this tale?" I asked. If I didn't think she could bench press me I would have tried to muscle them out of my apartment.

The Keebler lady smiled at me and put down the box of my books down at her feet. "Your mother is scared for your safety. She has powerful enemies that are already moving against her and you. This place is compromised and is not protected properly. Human apartments are not good places to ward. You need a real home, a threshold if you are to ward it. This will not do. So we are moving you out." Ok that explained a few things.

"But where am I going? This was the only place I could afford." and there was the kicker. I wasn't rolling in the dough.

The little lady laughed. "That has been taken care of." Then she went off to finish what she was doing.

Ok well that settled everything, not really, but hell. All I could do was shake my head and move on to take a shower and get ready for my date with Quinn. If my mom told them to pack up my apartment and move me somewhere else who was I to tell them to stop?

They hadn't made it back to my room yet so everything was where I had left it the day before. I closed and locked my bedroom door and stripped. The last thing I needed was a brownie getting a gander at my naked butt. I wasn't sure if I could live that down. I didn't have time for a nice soaker. Which would have done my mind wonders as my life seemed to be changing faster than the Kardashians changed spouses.

The shower felt good and I scrubbed everywhere and drug my razor over every inch of my body where hair shouldn't have been. Not that I was getting lack in the ladyscaping. It was still summer after all, but it was always better to err on the side of baby smooth skin. I toweled off in the bathroom. It was steamy and warm. I liked the combination thought it was hell on my hair. I was still rocking my little afro. It sort of gave me a kick ass sort of look. If I added a leather bodysuit I was sure I could get a job on the new Underworld movie. I giggled at the thought as I walked out of my bathroom. Yeah I would make a fearsome looking vampire with my little self.

I grabbed my jar of coco butter and sauntered back into my bedroom. I had no idea what I was going to wear. The only fancy dress that I had was the yellow number I had worn to my failed date with Josh. Damn, was that really just two days ago? I sat down on my bed to get myself ready. Wow, in two days my life had taken a complete 180 degree turn.

I ran coco butter all over myself. I knew I was going to be a bit shiny, but it was worth the effort. Nothing like an ashy hand or foot to ruin a nice outfit.

I heard the brownies moving around in my apartment. I had taken me nearly two days to move everything in and in less than a day they were almost finished packing up my entire life.

I settled on a grey jersey knit dress and a pair of tall heels. Quinn was so big that walking beside him I looked like his daughter. Well if I were lighter I was sure I could pass, but still I looked like a child next to him. So maybe these heels would make me look like the really small adult that I was. I captured my afro behind a thin black headband with a grey flower on the side. I added a pair of dangling ears before walking the catwalk down my bedroom in front of the full length mirror.

I looked cute. People had told me I was beautiful before but I just didn't see it. I was 4 foot 7 inches tall on a good day. My mouth was pouty as if I were a first class brat. Which I wasn't. My chocolate brown eyes, I thought, were my best feature. They were oval shaped almost if I were Asian, but I wasn't. I thought they were luminous with a little twinkle in them. You could tell I spent a lot of time looking at my eyes in the mirror.

My narrow waist flared out to my hips which ended at my butt. Which was a perfect size for my body so I wasn't like I could be on the twerk team with it or anything but I was flat in the behind department. I had short legs and dainty feet. Everything on me was small. I sighed, this was as good as it was going to get for me in the looks department.

My phone beeped. I looked at the text message. It was Quinn, he had just pulled up. Since I wasn't even sure how to explain my brownie situation to him I dashed out of my apartment and meet him on the landing. He was wearing black dress slacks and a purple dress shirt. I had to smirk. It matched his eyes perfectly.

He fixed those eyes on me and I could feel the heat rolling out of him as he took in my outfit. "Maybe I should let you clean up more often," He commented as he walked up the stairs to loom in front of me. He reached down and stroked my cheek. I was spellbound and I wasn't sure what to say, but thankfully Quinn solved that by leaning down to kiss me. I wobbled in my heels and he had to reach out to grab me before I tumbled down the stairs and broke my neck.

"If you keep kissing me like that I am going to get brain damage," I breathed once he pulled out of the kiss and helped me walk down the stairs.

He chuckled and helped me climb into the town car from the night before. I felt wrapped in leather. "You say the sweetest things." He answered. The car started with a gentle rumble. I was surprised it didn't sustain any damage from the blast.

Quinn swung the car out of my neighborhood and pointed it toward civilization. Once again we jumped on the highway.

We weren't heading to the Riverfront, "Where are we going?" I asked.

"I called in a few favors. So we are going some place special." Was all he said. Well I was content with that. Anything had to be better than the Chinese takeout I had been living on for the past few months that was for sure. We took the exit to the airport and I perked up a bit, but I didn't say anything. "Hope you aren't afraid of flying." He said once we had pulled up to a hanger.

"Well I've never been on a plane so we shall see." I offered as he got out. He opened my door and helped me to climb out. I had to remember to grab my purse before he walked me into the hanger. A small little crop duster plane was waiting with the door open for us. If this was going to be my first flight it was the perfect sized plane. I saw the pilot doing whatever it was pilots did in the cockpit. I had to take a couple of quick breaths as I walked up to the door. I was going to be ok. Maybe in the plane started to crash Quinn could turn into a bird something. That was possible right?

Yeah I was panicking slightly as Quinn helped me climb aboard.

The interior or the plane was spectacular. The seats were huge and wrapped in the supplest leather that made my hands had ever felt. I was giddy with anticipation of running them all over the seats. "Is this yours?" I asked him.

He sat down in the biggest of the seats, "No. I like to keep my feet on the ground. Like I said I called in a few favors." He strapped up and I followed suit. There were little TVs in front of all the seats which I hoped had satellite. There was enough legroom on the plane for me to lay down flat and have a nice snooze.

"Ready for takeoff sir," came the crackle from the intercom. Quinn mashed a button and responded. He held my hand as the engines started up and we taxied out of the hanger and onto the runway. I thought it was sweet that he was concerned about me freaking out. Other than Sage and maybe my foster parents on a good day no one had showed show much concern for me. Well my mom, but I was still getting used to the idea that I in fact had a real mother. Well real in the sense that she gave birth to me. Wait, did fairies give birth like humans or was a born when a child laughed like Tinker Bell? Ah hell this is way too much thinking for a first date.

I pulled myself out of my daydream and focused on the swiftly moving plane. I barely felt any of the vibrations as we zoomed down the runway. I did feel the wheels living the ground as the pilot pulled the little plane into the air. I wasn't sure where we were going but it felt good to be going there with Quinn. Looking at how gently he was holding my tiny hand I felt ashamed that I had written him off as a simple thug the first time we met. I had spent my whole life trying to prove I was as good as anyone growing up in a all white town in the middle of south Texas. Then I had to prove that I was more than my height. So one would have thought I would have been better at not judging a book by its cover.

"Thank you." I told him.

He looked at me with a curious expression on his face, "Why are you thanking me?" He asked.

"For seeing me past being a butthead." I told him. He chuckled and that made me smile.

"Of all the things adjectives I could use to describe you, butthead would not be on the list." He leaned over and kissed me before I respond to him. I squeaked before melting under his lips. He pulled me out of my seat and into his lap with ease.

Quinn made me feel small, but not in an overpowering way. In a delicate way that left me feeling like fine china. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed with total abandon. I felt my body heating up and I know Quinn felt it too because he broke off the kiss. We were both panting.

He didn't say anything but he just looked at me. I stayed in his lap for the rest of the trip.

**~~X~~**

If you had asked me what I had for dinner or even where we ate I couldn't tell you. I only had eyes for Quinn and I was willing to bet it was the same for him. I was open and honest with him more so than I had ever been with anyone. Maybe it was because he was there when I found out I wasn't all the way human, or maybe it was because he made my heart race or my face flush. Trust me its not that easy to make a black girl blush.

All around it had been a fantastic evening and I was glad that Josh had canceled on me the other night. Not glad that three keyed up werewolves had tried to rape me. I would never be ok with that and if I ever saw them again and I could manage to find that sword they were going to be singing soprano. But I was glad that Quinn had came to my rescue. This date with Quinn had been magical and I was over the moon that it was my first date. We were back on the highway before I remembered, "Oh Quinn I think I've moved." And now I wasn't sure what else to say because the brownies never told me where I was moving.

"I know. Your mom sent me a message." Was all he said.

"You talked to her?" I asked a little upset that she was talking to Quinn and not me.

He shook his head. "No. A little birdy told me." That made me feel a little better. "Nolan don't think your mother wouldn't be with you if she could be." He seemed to be reading my thoughts and that made me blush. Damnit I was getting tired of all the blushing.

"I'm not mad. Its just..." I got quiet. I wasn't sure how to explain it.

"I know. My mom wasn't always there for me and my sister because of circumstances beyond her control." We had pulled off the highway now.

"You have a sister?" I asked. I guess that was one of the questions I forget to ask him.

He nodded, "Yeah. A younger sister, and no she isn't a were. Only the first born of a were couple is a were." He told me. Well that was interesting.

"Why is that?" I asked.

He shrugged, "No one knows and its not like we are lining up to be lab rats if you feel me." I nodded. Now that I knew I wasn't fully human either I could understand what he was saying.

"Why did she send a message to you?" I was trying to look out the window to see where we were going but it was impossible with the dark tint and the speed with which we were traveling.

"I'm her champion and your knight. I have to know these things." He said that so easy I almost didn't catch it.

"Wait, what?" I was confused now.

"In the hospital when she gave me her wings she was marking me as her champion and your protector and I accepted." Was all he said. I nodded like I understood what all of that meant. I didn't but I didn't want to feel dumber by asking more questions. Quinn knew what it meant and that was enough for me.

We drove in silence after that. It wasn't uncomfortable. Which I was thankful for. I had the social grace of a elephant on a trike so awkward silences were my trademark, but I didn't want that to be the case with Quinn.

He made a turn and I felt the pavement give way to a rock driveway. His town car was ill-equipped for the rough terrain but he didn't say anything.

I could make trees and that was about it till the house came into view. Well no, house couldn't adequately explain what I was seeing. Castle was more like it. It was a honest to god freaking stone castle that we were driving up to. "Is that mine." I asked before my jaw dropped open.

"Yeah," Quinn chuckled. It was a massive stone structure with jaw like parapets wrapping around the roof. Several turrets and spirals added to the skyline. We pulled into a half mooned driveway. I could see more of those Brownies standing at the door. This was unreal. Quinn opened my door and held out his hand to help me climb out. I was unsteady in my heels as we walked up to the massive wooden door. It rose up above us at least 15 feet. It was inlaid with a strange language written out in gold, shimmering ink. It was beautiful and I was struck with the thought that we were heading into Moria.

"Welcome home miss." The female Brownie from my packing crew said.

"Uh thanks," was the best that I could come up with. "Is this a castle?" I asked. Yeah there is a such thing as a stupid question and I know I had just asked it, but I wanted to make sure I was still in the real world.

The Brownie chuckled. "Its the residence of the blooded princess. So yes miss its a castle and its your castle. Is the tiger staying?" The Brownie switched topics so quickly it took me a minute to form an answer.

"No he is not. He is escorting the princess home." Quinn answered. I wasn't sure I liked all this princess business, but maybe if I heard it enough I would grow to like it.

The Brownie dipped her head. "Um what's your name?" I asked. I had to call her something.

"I'm Lilly miss. Head of the household. You can meet the rest of the staff tomorrow. You've had a long day." She said it like she didn't expect any argument from me. She stood back and motioned for us to walk into the house.

They were all standing around waiting for me to do something. I took a deep breath and walked into my castle.


	6. Princess Nolan?

Walking into the house had been more awe inspiring than pulling up to the driveway. Even in the dark I could see the craftsmanship that went into the construction of my castle. Did I just say my castle? I think I did. The marble floor was humming with what I now knew was a magical residue. It made my feet tingle.

All the brownies trooped in after me and Quinn. I turned to let them know I didn't need anything but they all silently filed passed us. Well good. I didn't feel right bossing them around. Growing up a foster kid you learned pretty quickly to be self sufficient.

"Would the tiger and miss like something to drink in the parlor?" Lilly asked at my elbow. I swallowed back my yelp of fright. I thought she had gone with the other brownies to do whatever it was they did to occupy themselves.

"Oh yeah that would be fine. I will take a Coke if you have one." I hadn't been a big drinker to begin with and after my brush with werewolves I wasn't about to touch the stuff again.

"Water for me." I noticed Quinn wasn't a big drinker either. He had ordered wine for our dinner but neither of us had finished our first glass. Lilly dipped her head before going off to do our bidding. The parlor wasn't like anything I was picturing in my head. It looked a lot like a comfy living room with oversized furniture, a big screen TV and my gaming console. Ok now this was nice. It wasn't overly stuffy and frilly like most castles are. It looked like a regular home that just happened to be inside a honest to god castle.

I wanted to squeal and clap like a little girl, but I didn't. I was a princess after all and I didn't think princesses were supposed to act like that.

Quinn sat down on the couch and I followed him. He fit perfectly. I was swallowed up like a mint. I saw the smile flicker across his face. "Shut up." I said pulling myself out of the back of the sofa and sitting on the edge. My feet still didn't touch the floor.

Lilly brought us our drinks then slipped out of the room before I could thank her. "Tell me about your family." I said softly. I had given Quinn my entire life story. Well there wasn't much to it. Grew up in foster care with all my worldly possession in black garbage bags.

Quinn drained his entire bottle of water before he spoke. "Don't know who my father is. He took off a little after I was born. It was just me and my mom for awhile then my mom was raped and Fannie came along. I love Fannie something fierce regardless of how she was conceived." I never doubted him for a moment. "I killed the men that attacked my mother so I had to get the Nevada vampires to clean up the scene. As payment I had to fight in the pits for 3 years." He fixed his purple eyes on me.

I guess he was waiting for me to pronounce a verdict about his life story. Ok so his story beat mine by leaps and bounds. I reached over and covered half his hand with my tiny hand. "Doesn't change how I feel about you." I told him. If anything it took him up a few notches.

His face split into a grin. "Well I think its time for me to head home. Can't keep the princess up past her bedtime." He unfolded himself from the couch and stood. I followed suit. I didn't want him to leave, but I wasn't sure I was ready for what came along with a man sleeping over.

Quinn looked down at me. Sparks were sizzling between us. I didn't want him to leave and he didn't want to leave. He scooped me up in his arms for a kiss. I swear stars burst in front of my eyes. I went limp in his arms and he chuckled against my mouth, "You make me feel like king of the world when you do that." He picked me up and carried me over to the couch.

I must have weighed nothing the way he carried me around. He laid me down on the couch. My heart started racing and my breath hitched. Was I really going to have sex with Quinn? "Quinn wait," I said scrambling off the couch.

He stepped back to give me space. Which made my heart squeeze. He was raw and he was tough, but he was also gentle and so patient with me."Don't think we have to do this. I'm not a put out sort of guy." He gave me a crooked smile.

I matched his smile, "No its not that. Its just I've..." Cue full on body blush. Quinn chuckled. Why did he find me blushing so amusing. I hated it. I didn't know any other black girls who blushed like me.

Maybe this was a symptom of having a white foster family, but at least Quinn liked it since he was the cause of all my blushing in the first place.

"Yeah I've never had sex before and I'm sure you've had tons of women," Ugh, not a mental picture I wanted right now. "No wait, crap. That came out wrong. I meant I'm sure you have experience and I don't. And well I suck at all of this as you can tell..." His mouth was on mine before I could finish my thought. My brain went on a little vacation as my lips took over the show. He parted my lips with his tongue and I sucked it into my mouth. Quinn's body shuddered against me. Well at least now I know I could kiss properly.

He pulled back and looked at me. "Woman do you know how beautiful you are?" I shook my head no. "Any man who didn't fall on his knees and kiss your feet for smiling at him was an asshole but I'm a selfish enough bastard to be glad that I get to make you blush like that." He ran his thumb over my flaming cheek before he kissed me again. Like a bonehead my knees gave out on me again. Once we came up for air I had tears in my eyes. "I hope these are happy tears since you seem to like it when I kiss you." he sat us back on the couch.

I shook my head, "This can't be real. I hit my head really hard when I was attacked and right now I'm lying in a hospital bed in a coma and this is the reality that I've built in my head." There was no way I had spent the last 26 years of my life a lonely virgin and then all of a sudden a man asked me out on a date and then said guy wanted to have sex with me and it wasn't for a bet.

Quinn took my hand in his. My hand looked like a doll's hand against his well...paw. "When I kiss a woman its real." He leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead, "But I think we covered a few hurdles tonight. I've got some work to finish up this week, but I want to see you again once its done. And I did promise your mother that I would look after you." He looked at me asking for permission to see me. I thought it was supremely sweet and it made my heart flutter again.

"I would like that." I told him softly. If he still wanted to see me I sure as hell wanted to see him again.

He gave me a sheepish smile. "Goodnight Nolan." He gave me another kiss before walking out of the living room. I sat on the couch looking through the doorway he had just vacated. Somehow the house felt larger without him in it.

I stood up. "I can show the misses to her bedroom." a tiny voice called. I looked around.

It was a brownie I had never sen before. She was smaller than Lilly which was saying something.

"Oh that would be nice thanks." She beamed at me glad to be of service. Well wasn't that just the cat's meow. She escorted me out of the living and back across the marble foyer. I hadn't notice the double winding staircase that emptied into the back part of the foyer when I walked in. Quinn sort of made any room he was standing in background noise, but from what I could see the silver moonlight they were impressive staircases. The brownie led me up the right one and I tried to remember the exact sequence of events from the stairs to my room but my brain was moving on autopilot and nothing was sticking.

I fell back on the bed when I finally got to my bedroom. Nothing else in the room was standing out to me at the moment, but the bed.

I hugged my pillow tight and closed my eyes. Well hell. Now that he was gone I wanted him. My body, the damn traitor, was jonesing for him hard. I got up and went into the bathroom for something to do. I washed my face brushed my teeth before changing into my Spiderman boy shorts and a sports bra. I looked like a middle schooler playing dress up in her big sister's Halloween costume.

On that happy thought I went to bed. Of course my dreams were filled with Quinn and those eyes and those lips. Even in my dreams he made me faint from kissing. It was even hard in a dream state to imagine what sex with Quinn would feel like. I was so unprepared I couldn't even fantasy about it properly.

I woke up with a groan and my body aching for his touch, for anything from him. My phone beeped. I l grabbed it thinking that Sage was going to be bite my head off from not contacting her.

It was Quinn. I squealed like a middle school girl and hugged my phone. Yep, I had it bad.

_Seems like I will be spending more time with you this week. See you for lunch, Q_

I hope out of bed with a smile on my face. At least this was going to make up for my restless night. The bedroom I was standing in could have help my entire apartment several times over. Well the bedroom was made up of several other rooms. I had the actual bedroom, then a sitting room with two comfy love seats, a study space with bookshelves wrapping around the entire space, and finally a bathroom that made me want to weep. It was a marble masterpiece with a sunken tub and carwash shower that was open at both ends and had enough shower heads to clean the Atlanta Falcons.

I spent nearly two hours in the bathroom soaking in the tub and just having a wonderful time. I loved a good bath and this was a bath believe you me. Sure I could fit in the tub at my old apartment, but this was on another level.

When I got out Lily was waiting for me in my sitting room. She was looking stern and carrying a clipboard. I didn't like that. I was wearing nothing but a towel, but she didn't seem to be bothered by that fact. "We've got a long day ahead mistress. Best get right to it. First I need you to approve the menu for the day and sign off on all the household expenses. Master Quinn is meeting your for lunch at noon. My sister Rose will be here to fit you for your court gowns before that. The winter solstice is in two days so we have to plan your coronation, and something called a Sage has been calling you on your phone since last night." Lily said all of this without taking a breath. I had to blink a few times to process it all.

"Court gowns." I squeaked. Lily gave me a look I was sure she gave her children when they did something stupid.

"Denim maybe good for the human world, but if you are to be the princess of Faery you have to look the part miss." It made sense, but I wasn't a ball gown for day wear sort of girl. Give me jeans and a ribbed tee and I was a happy camper.

Once the matter of the gowns was settled my mind was able to process the rest of what she had told me. "Wait a minute, coronation?" Like I had to sit on a throne while someone placed a crown on my head.

Now Lily took a breath at this point. Yep, she had little brownies somewhere exasperating her just as I was right now, but as she looked at me her face softened. "I forget that you were raised in the human world." She pulled up the chair at the vanity to look at me. "Faery is the land beyond the veil of humanity. All supernatural creatures are faery spawn. Even vampires. Though they were begotten of the worst of faeries. I shall not speak of them again." I had a feeling she really meant that. I was happy not to speak of them either.

"We existed before humans, but I fear we may not outlive them. There is a civil war happening for the very soul of Faery. One side wants Faery to remain hidden, secret from the rest of the world. There are things in our world that humans would slaughter entire nations to control. The other side wants dominion over humans and all of Faery. Either through submission or blood. You're mother and her allies are the only things that stand between us and death. Her enemies know she is strongest in Faery. She was there when it was created. Some say she birthed all of Faery. Her enemies have brought the fight into the human world. They have to be stopped and finally the queen has claimed you so you have to ascend to the throne. We need you in the fight mistress." Lily had faith that I was going to be the great warrior and help my mother in this fight.

A fight I had just learned about when the vampires had tried to first kidnap me then drawn me once they got a sniff of my blood. A few days ago I thought I was alone in the world. Not alone that I didn't have any friends. I had plenty of those, but your friends weren't your blood. Blood ran deep and I had found mine. I may not have known her long, but the hours that I spent in my mother's arms had erased all those lonely nights wondering from foster home to foster home, all the soccer games, the recitals. Her blood called to me. I was going to answer.

"Alright." I looked Lily square in the eye. Whatever she saw on my face she liked because she nodded. She climbed off the chair.

"Well then mistress we best be about your mother's business." She was beaming from ear to ear. Well at least I had made her happy. That was certainly a start after my gown blunder.

"Listen Lily. We've established that I'm new to all of this." I gestured around the room. "So how about I leave you in charge of the house and my schedule." Because apparently I was going into the business of being a princess. Wasn't sure what all that entailed, but from the looks of things I was going to be one busy bee. "And you leave the fight to me." If my little blade trick at the club was to be believed I could take care of myself.

"Thank you mistress. I will do my best." Lily beamed. I guessed she was going to like being in charge of things. I was over the moon frankly. Half of my diet consisted of fast food and chinese food. Anything was an upgrade. "Would you like a tour before Rose gets here?" I nodded.

Last night I hadn't been in any sort of mood to wonder around the house. Now I was ready. Lily waited in the sitting room while I went back and changed. It was weird seeing my clothes in a walk in closet. I was embarrassed at how little I owned.

When you're a foster kid and you had to be ready to move in with a new family you learned not to accumulate things. That was just more stuff you had to keep track of to pack when the time came, but when I aged out of the system and went to college I bought as much as I could. No one at school was coming to make me move before I wanted to. Maybe now I could really buy the things I wanted. Take the vacation I had always promised myself I would take.

I pulled on a pair of jeans and a baby tee. I was puttering around the house as it was so no need to stand on ceremony. Lily frowned at my outfit. Well she was just going to have to get used to it. I was going to put on a cocktail dress just to take a tour of my own house.

We started in the foyer. So at least I could have some reference point when I wanted to get around. The castle was in the shape of a three story H. It was a lot bigger than I had originally thought when we pulled up last night. The hallways were grand and sweeping. Plush carpet softened out footfalls. It kept the place from feeling like a cold, drafty castle. I appreciated it. Light spilled into them from the arched windows every few feet.

My private apartments took the up the top floor of the east wing. Those included my bedroom and bathroom, study and sitting room and then my smaller audience chamber. Under my apartments were the apartments for my retainers. Yeah like that was ever going to happen. There wasn't anyone that I could think of that I wanted to hang out with all the time. Well except Quinn and I couldn't see him settling for that.

On the first floor from that was my public audience chamber. Wasn't sure what I was going with that, but there it was if I needed it Lily said. She was sure that my subjects were going to look to me for adjudication for their issues. This princesses business was starting to sound like actual work. I already had a job.

On the other side of the H were the public spaces. The dining hall, ballroom, library, guest apartments, kitchen, staff quarters, music room, game room, and all manner of other rooms I had stopped listening around the fortieth room.

If you asked me where any of it was I was sure I would send you to the moon before you found what you were looking for. I felt like I had walked across the Mojave desert by the time we made it to my private audience chambers for the fittings.

I had a few minutes to spare so I called Sage. This was going to be a conversation for the ages. I wasn't even sure how many days at work I had missed. I guess I didn't need to work anymore, but I loved my job. I had worked so hard to get it and I was loathed to let it go just because I was a faery monarch. Whatever the hell that meant.

"This can't be Nolan calling me because my best friend wouldn't go three days without calling me after she was almost raped and then blown up and eaten by vampires." She said when she answered the phone.

I sighed. I had been a bad friend and Sage wasn't going to let me off easily. "I'm sorry. Things have happened so quickly." Which was true. When I woke up yesterday I was living in a small one bedroom apartment off the highway.

"So you are saying you lost your phone and forgot my phone number." I had to stop myself from throwing the phone across the room.

"Damnit Sage this isn't about you. Jesus cut me some slack." I yelled. The other end of the phone got deathly quiet. I had never yelled at Sage before and she had been my best friend since our freshmen year at college. She had seen me through the death of my foster father. She had been my rock and now I was yelling at her because she was concerned about me. "I'm sorry I yelled, but just give me a chance to explain and then you can go back to being pissed at me if you want." I held my breath that I hadn't gone beyond the point of no return.

"Ok," she said slowly.

I started from my attempted rape all the way to my kiss goodnight with Quinn. Sage didn't interrupted me once, which I took as a bad sign. Sage was a tornado, a force of nature. There were weathermen that tracked her club hopping to make sure they didn't need to evacuate the city if she wasn't on the VIP list. If she was quiet nothing good was going to come of it.

"You're a princess." Was the first question she asked.

"Yeah,"I answered weakly.

"Well I better be invited to this coronation and there better be some cute guys there." and just like that we were fine. We stayed on the phone nearly an hour. Lily promised she would send Sage an invitation. It wasn't safe for me to invite all of my friends. Faeries were out in the open like vampires and the weres. From what Lily was telling me during our tour we were hunted like cattle and used for our magic and spare parts. Unicorn hair was the strongest material in the world. They had been hunted to near extinction. Till my mom took them back to Faery for safe keeping.

I even got a lesson in the family tree of Faery. My mother was the queen and ultimate ruler of Faery. She was the top dog and as her blooded child as in she gave birth to me I was her direct and only heir. However my mother created other beings that were princes or princesses, but they didn't have a right to throne. Only I did.

I found out Niall was one of those created princes. I don't know why but it made me feel good that I was higher on the food chain than Sookie and her faery godfather. I was inherently more powerful then the two of them put together. I had to right to feel smug when she was still on the mend from being blown up.

I didn't have long to think about Sookie was it was nearly time for my fittings. Everything was set up in my dressing room. Didn't even know I had one, but apparently all the gowns I was going to have to wear were a two person job to get in and out of. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Rose, Lily's twin, couldn't have been more different from her sister. Where Lily was precision and order, Rose was hipster and chaos. Lily's hair was braided down her back, Rose's was a halo of brown curls swirling around her head.

"She's a wee thing isn't she." Rose said by way of greeting.

"She can hear too you know." I said back. Rose fixed her green eyes on my. I tensed incase she was going to take a swing at me. She threw her head back to let loose a bellyful of laughter.

"Oh I think I like you." she set down a tiny doctor's bag. She pulled a three legged stool and a measuring tape of out her bag. How she managed to git a stool in there I will never know. "Now get down to your underwear." She slipped on one of those little wrist pin cushions. I sighed before stripping down to my boy shorts and bra. At least it was just us girls. I was looking right petulant by the time rose had set up everything she was going to need for our little dress up time. "Up you go." She nodded at the stool. I climbed up and resigned myself to inevitable.

It was two hours of utter torture. For one I had to stand still the entire time while Lily and Rose muttered to each other about what sort of color would bring out my eyes. Would silk look better with my hair or would they nee to cut my hair. I vetoed that suggestion before it took hold. All in all Rose said she had enough to make me gowns till I was sick of them. I just nodded.

Lunch was a little late, but I didn't care. Anything that got me out of Rose's too grabby hands was alright with me. I was starving too. My bath time had taken up most of the morning. Breakfast had taken a back burner.

I was fidgeting with my fingernail when Lily showed Quinn into my private audience chamber. Good lord I was turing in Maria Antoinette. He was wearing a purple dress shirt and black slacks. The man could fill out a pair of slacks like it was no one's business. My heart skipped a few dozen beats.

His face split into a grin when he saw me. I smiled back at him and stood up. "Hi," It was lame I know. I chalked it up to my lack of dating experience.

Quinn scooped me up in a bear hug in a way only he could. He kissed me soundly. I squeezed around his neck as tightly as I could as we kissed. I wasn't sure but I thought me and Quinn had spent more time kissing each other than anything else. Which was fine by me.

He set me back down. I wobbled a little on my feet. "I gather you missed me." He said once we were both seated.

"Maybe a little." I answered. He smiled. It was hard to reconcile this Quinn with the feral tiger that had defended me in that ally. Make no mistake I was glad that he could morph into an animal capable of killing two deranged werewolves, but it was hard to know that when I was looking at him smiling. "So to what do I owe the pleasure. I thought you were going to be gone for awhile." Not that I minded seeing him. I just didn't want to turn into one of those needy girls. It wouldn't take much for Quinn to turn me into one of those girls. At this point all he had to do was ask.

"I've got one last job to do before I quit." He quartered his whole chicken before tearing into one of the breasts.

I blinked at looked at him. "You're quitting?" The way he talked about his job he really liked doing it.

"I am." We stopped talking while a troop of brownies walked in with our lunch. In deference to Quinn there was a lot more meat on the table that I would have been able to eat.

"But why you love your job." I protested.

He smiled before stripping a chicken leg clean. "Can't be your vanguard if I had to rush off to plan a werewolf mating ceremony now can I?" he spooned a mouthful of corn into his mouth.

I had never seen anyone clean chicken bones as effective as Quinn did, and I hung around black people in college. "You're quitting because of me?" I set my fork down. Suddenly I didn't feel like eating.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch Nolan. I'm quitting because I made an oath to your mother." He said simply.

"The state of my panties is none of your concern." I let out before I could stop myself. I looked at him.

Quinn stopped eating to fix those purple eyes on me. "The state of your panties concerns me greatly Nolan." The air between us charged with sexual heat and I felt myself flush.

There was nowhere else to look but into those purple eyes. He didn't look away. Therefore I couldn't look away. He smirked before looking back down at his plate to continue eating.

The spell broke and I was able to blink. Quinn knew exactly how he effected me and he was using it against me. "Its not fair that you have me spellbound and I can't even get a blush out of you." I muttered as I pushed around the salad on my plate. Why couldn't I be one of those girls that could stop traffic? Quinn growled loudly. My eyes snapped up to his.

Quinn was out of his chair faster than my eyes could track. His bulking form was a blur before I could blink. He swept me out of my chair and took me down to the floor in one fluid movement. Hard and fast. His body covered mine easily and throughly. I gasped for air but he pressed tighter against me. I could feel his erection between my legs. "Do you feel that Nolan?" He growled. I whimpered. "Tell me do you feel that?" I nodded. "What does it mean." He ground his erection into me. I gasped again. "Tell me what it means Nolan. I won't ask you again." Where the hell did all the air in the room go?

My brain was misfiring. I had to swallow a few times before I could make my throat push out my answer. "You're aroused." It came out as a thin whisper.

It was a wonder he heard me. With a growl his lips found mine. I thought he was going to be rough, but he wasn't. Though he had me pinned to the floor I had room to wiggle. Which I was going a lot of.

His lips were soft, teasing, pleading with me to let him in. I opened my mouth and his tongue darted in. I couldn't hold back the moan that escaped my mouth. His hand snaked up under my tee. His fingers were cool against my feverish skin. Thick fingers splayed across my stomach. I had to tremble.

So far Quinn had touched me in places no one else had. His hand inched up to cup my breasts. A thumb flicked across my taunt nipple. My body jacked off the floor and pressed into his. He growled again, deep in his chest and he kissed me down to my toes.

When he finally pulled up for air I was as limp as a dirty dish towel, but he was hard as steel and pressing painfully into me. "Don't ever doubt how I feel about you or how you effect me." He said into me ear before disappearing.

Air rushed into my lungs once my chest could expand. My nipples were straining against my bra and with the thin tee I was wearing I didn't want to stand up. Thankfully Quinn scooped me up to save me from the internal struggle I was going to put myself through. I curled gratefully into his arms.

"I guess lunch is over." I said hopefully. That was fine by me. I was up for anything that involved me and Quinn getting to know each other in the biblical sense.

"You aren't ready." he whispered into my ear.

I looked at him as he carried me up the stairs toward my bedroom. "Yes I am." I told him. If he couldn't see that I was more than ready to have sex then I needed to work on my body language.

He shook his head. "Nolan when you have sex for the first time it should be with the man you love." his eyes searched my face. I liked Quinn, I liked him a lot, but I didn't love him...yet.


End file.
